Sports
Megan Rapinoe to retire from soccer
OL Reign forward to end career at end of 2023 season
Lesbian activist, anti-racist, transgender ally and two-time World Cup champion Megan Rapinoe announced on Instagram Saturday that this championship season will be her last.
“It is with a deep sense of peace and gratitude that I have decided this will be my final season playing this beautiful game,” Rapinoe wrote, in a post that featured a photo of the 38-year-old when the Redding, Calif., native was a little girl. “I never could have imagined the ways in which soccer would shape and change my life forever, but by the look on this little girl’s face, I think she knew all along.”
“Congrats, baby!!” wrote Rapinoe’s fiancée, former WNBA star and Olympic Gold Medalist Sue Bird, on her Instagram post. “That little girl is going to continue to do so much good in this world (but she sure did kill it on the field). I love you!”
Bird told an interviewer last year if it were up to her, she would have married Rapinoe in 2021, but that most likely they won’t tie the knot until after this season.
Rapinoe met Bird at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio and reportedly started dating that fall, but Bird didn’t come out as gay until July 2017, as the Blade reported. The following summer, Bird and Rapinoe became the first same-sex couple in ESPN’s The Body Issue. In 2019, Rapinoe posed for Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue, becoming that iconic magazine’s first out gay woman to do so. Last year, President Biden awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
“I want to thank my family for being by my side all these years. Thanks to all my teammates and coaches all the way back to my first days in Redding, on to college at the University of Portland and of course thanks to U.S. Soccer, the Seattle Reign and especially Sue, for everything,” said Rapinoe in a statement posted online by U.S. Soccer.
The organization hailed Rapinoe for “her amazing talents on the field, her creative goal scoring, her clutch performances in some of the biggest matches of her career,” and for her social justice work off the pitch, from LGBTQ+ rights to racial inequality, voter rights and gender and pay equity. “She leaves the game as one of the most impactful figures in the history of soccer in the United States and in the global women’s game.”
Rapinoe, one of Time Magazine’s 2023 Women of the Year honorees, was the first white athlete and the first woman to kneel during the National Anthem to show her solidarity with NFL player Colin Kaepernick.
“I’ve been able to have such an incredible career, and this game has brought me all over the world and allowed me to meet so many amazing people,” Rapinoe said in the statement from U.S. Soccer. “I feel incredibly grateful to have played as long as I have, to be as successful as we’ve been, and to have been a part of a generation of players who undoubtedly left the game better than they found it. To be able to play one last World Cup and one last NWSL season and go out on my own terms is incredibly special.”
She is scheduled to play in her final World Cup this summer in Australia and New Zealand. After that, Rapinoe is set to complete her historic soccer career in the National Women’s Soccer League and end the 2023 season with her long-time club, OL Reign. Although their last game will be in Chicago against the Red Stars on Oct. 15, the OL Reign announced the team will hold a “Forever Reign” celebration of Rapinoe’s career at their last home match at Lumen Field on Oct. 6 against the Washington Spirit.
“I will forever cherish the friendships and support over the years in this game,” she said, “and I am beyond excited for one last ride with the National Team and the Reign.”
Rapinoe has been a longtime advocate for transgender athletes, and just this week defended trans inclusion in sports in an interview with LinkedIn News: “I think a lot of athletes feel the same, they would give up any sort of championship so that a kid doesn’t feel like they don’t belong in the world.”
“You’ve given so much not only to soccer but to sports and the world beyond,” wrote trans trailblazer and author Schuyler Bailar in a comment on Rapinoe’s Instagram post. “Thank you for all that you are and all that you’ve done.”
“So proud of you!” wrote USWNT teammate Ali Krieger of the NJ/NY Gotham FC, who announced in March that she, too, is retiring at the end of the season. “Most important, you’re an incredible human and friend.”
Iran and Egypt on Friday faced off during the World Cup’s “Pride Match” in Seattle.
Iran is among the handful of countries in which consensual same-sex sexual relations remain punishable by death. Discrimination and persecution based on sexual orientation and gender identity is commonplace in Egypt.
Friday’s match coincided with Pride weekend in Seattle. The Egyptian Football Association and the Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran both objected to playing in the “Pride Match.”
Egypt and Iran tied 1-1.
FIFA, for its part, allowed Pride flags inside the stadium during the match.
“The FIFA World Cup 2026 is an inclusive event that welcomes people from all backgrounds,” a FIFA spokesperson told the Washington Blade in a statement. “Fans of all sexual orientations and gender identities are welcome at matches and events. General statements of human rights, including rainbow flags and other flags representing sexual orientation and gender identity, are permitted under the FIFA World Cup 2026™ Stadium Code of Conduct and may be displayed inside stadiums provided they are used in a manner consistent with the code.”
Human Rights Watch welcomed FIFA’s decision to allow Pride flags inside the stadium. Outright International, a global LGBTQ and intersex rights group, distributed Pride flags in Seattle on Friday, which was Pride Match Day.
“Visibility matters,” said Outright International Executive Director Maria Sjödin. “Pride is now being celebrated in more than 100 countries, including this weekend in Seattle. For many LGBTIQ people, seeing a Pride flag in public is a reminder that they are not alone, and that their rights and dignity are recognized.”
FIFA President Gianni Infantino earlier this year told Die Weltwoche, a Swiss magazine, that “there will be no ‘Pride Match’ at the (FIFA) World Cup.”
“There will be a FIFA World Cup match in Seattle, and on the same day, events organized by external organizations will be taking place in the city,” said Infantino. “But that has nothing to do with the match itself.”
Peter Tatchell, a long-time LGBTQ activist from the U.K. who is director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation, was among those who traveled to Seattle for Friday’s match. Tatchell accused FIFA of not vetting World Cup teams — specifically Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Ghana, Senegal, Qatar, Tunisia, Morocco, Iraq, Uzbekistan, and Algeria — over whether they would allow gay players.
“FIFA is protecting LGBT+ visibility in the stands while failing to protect LGBT+ players on the pitch,” said Tatchell.
The Baltimore Orioles will take on the Washington Nationals on Friday, June 26 at 7 p.m. for Pride Night at Oriole Park.
The first 15,000 fans will receive an exclusive Pride Night Orioles jersey. The Washington Blade is a media sponsor of this event.
To purchase tickets, visit Orioles.com/Tickets.
Sports
Minor league team in York, Pa., forfeits Pride Night game after some players refuse to wear special jersey
City is roughly 20 miles north of Md. border
An independent minor league baseball team says it is forfeiting a game because some of its players refused to wear a special Pride Night jersey.
The Atlantic League Pro Baseball’s York Revolution were planning to hold their 11th annual Pride Night event Thursday for a game against the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs.
But the Revolution announced the day of the game that it wouldn’t be played. York is about 20 miles north of the Maryland line. The Blue Crabs play in Waldorf.
The rest of this article can be found on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
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