Two-time Women's World Cup football champion and former Ballon D'Or winner Megan Rapinoe has defended the inclusion of transgender athletes in sport as more governing bodies, including FIFA and World Athletics, consider tighter restrictions on trans people's participation.
Warning: This article contains discussion of suicide.
Speaking to Time Magazine on Monday, Rapinoe said much of the decision-making from governing bodies that excluded trans people was misinformed, and that the rationale behind blanket bans was both unethical and not supported by evidence.
"I'm 100 per cent supportive of trans inclusion," Rapinoe said.
"People do not know very much about it. We're missing almost everything. Frankly, I think what a lot of people know is versions of the [political] right's talking-points, because they're very loud, they're very consistent, and they're relentless.
"At the highest level, there is regulation. In collegiate sports, there is regulation, and at the Olympic and professional level. It's not like it's a free-for-all where everyone's just doing whatever.
"So we need to start from inclusion — period. And, as things arise, I have confidence that we can figure it out. But we can't start at the opposite. That is cruel. And, frankly, it's just disgusting.
"We really need to take a step back and get a grip on what we're really talking about here because people's lives are at risk. Kids' lives are at risk with the rates of suicide, the rates of depression and negative mental health and drug abuse.
"We're [framing] everything through 'God forbid a trans person be successful in sports'. Get a grip on reality and take a step back."
Rapinoe, who plays alongside Canadian women's national team and non-binary, trans footballer Quinn at NWSL club OL Reign, has used her high-profile platform to advocate for social causes for several years.
She was the first footballer in the world to kneel in solidarity with NFL player Colin Kaepernick, was a leader in the US women's national team's fight for equal pay, and regularly uses interviews and award acceptance speeches to shine a light on issues affecting the LGBTQIA+ community, of which she is part.
"I am not just speaking for me," she said. "I'm speaking for a lot of people.
"For a long time, I was the only player that was 'out'. And, so, just being the only spokesperson and making sure I'm setting the right example, saying the right things, whether it comes to gay marriage or difficult and nuanced topics like trans inclusion in sports.
"Those are the challenges of just continuing to stay educated.
"Nothing goes unsaid. Speak it plainly. And I'm gonna speak it loudly, and I think that helps other people who maybe don't have the ability to do that, or who aren't in a place to do that quite yet."
The United States is facing its own reckoning when it comes to trans people's inclusion in sports, with several Republican-controlled states banning trans people from all sport, despite not being able to provide evidence to support it, while others have passed laws requiring school-aged girls "suspected" of being trans to receive physical genital examinations to "prove" their gender presentation matches their biological sex characteristics.
For Rapinoe, these blanket sports laws not only disproportionately affect an already-marginalised community, but they also feed into a discourse where success in elite sport takes priority over the rights and freedoms of trans people.
"I think people also need to understand that sports is not the most important thing in life, right? Life is the most important thing in life," she said.
"And so much of this trans inclusion argument has been put through the extremely tiny lens of elite sports. That is not the way to be framing this question.
"They are committing suicide because they are being told that they're gross and different and evil and sinful and they can't play sports with their friends that they grew up with. It's monstrous.
"I would also encourage everyone out there who is afraid someone's going to have an unfair advantage over their kid to really take a step back and think, 'What are we actually talking about here?'
"We're talking about people's lives. I'm sorry, your kid's high school volleyball team just isn't that important. It's not more important than any one kid's life."
