Rapinoe Launches Attack on Women Athletes Defending Female Sports

Clear Facts

• Former soccer player Megan Rapinoe used her podcast to attack WNBA star Sophie Cunningham and Riley Gaines for defending women’s sports
• Rapinoe criticized Cunningham simply for taking a photo with Gaines after a game, claiming it revealed her beliefs
• Riley Gaines competed directly against biological male Lia Thomas at the 2022 NCAA Championships and witnessed firsthand the unfair advantage

Megan Rapinoe has returned to the spotlight with another attack on women who advocate for fairness in female athletics. The former U.S. Women’s National Team player used her podcast platform to target Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham and former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines.

Speaking on her “Why Are You Like This?” podcast, Rapinoe went after Cunningham and Gaines following their post-game photo together after the Fever’s matchup against the Minnesota Lynx. Rapinoe supports allowing biological males to compete in women’s sports and positioned women who disagree as villains.

“I want to address the controversy that is happening right now around trans women in sports,” Rapinoe opened.

“As you know, I’ve talked about this a lot and will continue to keep talking about this.”

She immediately attacked Cunningham, a popular WNBA guard who has become a role model for young girls nationwide. Cunningham’s supposed transgression was simply taking a photograph with Gaines, an athlete who experienced firsthand the consequences of allowing biological males to compete against women.

When Gaines attended that game, arena security singled her out as the only person in the building forced to remove a simple sign supporting Cunningham that read “Sophie thank you – a Girl Mom.” This selective enforcement reveals the extent to which Gaines and Cunningham challenge the WNBA’s imposed agenda.

“I don’t know Sophie, so I can only project what I see about her beliefs based on her actions, and seeing a picture of her with Riley Gaines after the game told me everything I need to know about what’s happening,” Rapinoe stated.

Rapinoe demanded ideological conformity from the WNBA star, treating a single photograph as evidence of Cunningham’s beliefs rather than engaging with anything Cunningham actually said. No facts, no conversation—just guilt by association.

“Sophie has claimed both to love trans people and support Title IX. And this is where I think the accountability with having a major platform is extremely important.”

Rapinoe then shifted her focus to Gaines.

“Riley Gaines has made it her life’s mission to exclude trans people from public life,” Rapinoe claimed.

“She’s directly tied to the Heritage Foundation, the authors of Project 2025 and now 2026, who have now published a report that suggests that they want to repeal Title IX, the very piece of legislation that allowed athletes like Sophie and myself to compete in sports.”

What Rapinoe conveniently ignores is that Gaines competed directly against biological male Will Thomas (who goes by “Lia”) at the 2022 NCAA Championships. Gaines was in the pool, experiencing firsthand the unfair advantage a biological male has over female competitors. Activists like Rapinoe supported Thomas’s participation in women’s swimming and access to women’s locker rooms.

This represents classic misdirection from Rapinoe. She erases Gaines’s actual experience competing against a biological male, portrays her as merely a political operative, and ignores the documented harm to female sports. Rapinoe wants audiences to dismiss Gaines’s lived experience while attacking Cunningham over a simple photograph. The facts of what happened in the pool and the voices of other female athletes who share Gaines’s concerns are simply ignored.

“You can hear it even in the language being used that the root of trans exclusion is to protect young girls from men,” Rapinoe said.

“To be clear, I would love to have that conversation and it’s much needed in this country. But it frames the conversation as if we’re protecting young girls from men being in WNBA locker rooms, not happening. It villainizes trans girls as if they’re somehow magically older than their peers. Or are men, when in reality, they are also young girls. These laws are excluding kids. Kids from playing youth sports.”

She dismissed concerns at elite competition levels, claiming existing policies were sufficient and unnoticed because “they worked.”

She concluded her attack by dismissing anyone who disagrees.

“So, if anybody is taking these talking points as legit or believing they’re protecting young girls in sports? I just have to ask, are you serious?”

Yes, Americans are serious. Parents, female athletes, and sports fans are serious about protecting single-sex sports—the very principle Title IX was created to guarantee. Rather than engage with why Gaines entered this debate after her personal experience or why Cunningham chose to stand with her, Rapinoe simply portrays both women as the problem.

Rapinoe can defend her position, but Gaines and Cunningham are standing up for female athletes and the young girls who deserve a fair playing field. These women represent the majority of Americans who understand basic biology and believe women’s sports should remain for biological females.

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