London is gearing up for the Olympics, and soccer Olympian Megan Rapinoe is gearing up for her life out of the closet.
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The 27-year-old soccer midfielder, who is currently on the Seattle Sounders Women of the W- League and a member of the United States women’s national soccer team, didn’t wait to be photographed out with another woman to tell her story. She simply outed herself in a magazine interview by stating “and for the record, I am gay.”
The bleach haired Megan will be off to London to represent the United States at the Olympics this year, an achievement in itself, but prior to her departure she wanted to leave her mark on women’s soccer by coming out and publically discussing her sexuality with Out magazine.
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In the magazine’s latest issue, Megan opens up not only about her sexuality, but about the homophobia in sports saying:
“I feel like sports in general are still homophobic, in the sense that not a lot of people are out,” she says. “I feel everyone is really craving [for] people to come out. People want — they need — to see that there are people like me playing soccer for the good ol’ U.S. of A.”
She also notes that she hasn’t been hiding a damn thing about her sexuality, she was just never asked:
“I think they were trying to be respectful and that it’s my job to say, ‘I’m gay.’ Which I am. For the record: I am gay,” she says. In fact, Rapinoe’s been dating her girlfriend, an Australian soccer player, for three years, and even brought her home to visit her family in Northern California last Christmas.
Unfortunately, Megan says she doesn’t see the same acceptance for homosexuality in the male sports demographic:
“In female sports, if you’re gay, most likely your team knows it pretty quickly,” she says. “It’s very open and widely supported. For males, it’s not that way at all. It’s sad.”
Best of luck to Megan as she heads to London to represent for the land of the free!
Be sure to check out her whole article over at OUT Magazine.
