Megan Rapinoe made a big statement when she attended the Met Gala Monday night. The 36-year-old soccer star was seen wearing a red silk Sergio Hudson pantsuit with a blue blouse with white stars. She also was holding a purse that had the words “In Gay We Trust” written over it.
Rapinoe has always been outspoken when it comes to human rights and social justice, and the Met Gala was a way for her to use a big platform to voice her opinion. In an interview with NPR last year, Rapinoe talked about the women in soccer and getting paid significantly less than the men despite the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team has had more success over the last 20 years.
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“The amount of money that we could possibly earn in our contract compared to the amount of money that the men could possibly earn in the contract is very different,” Rapinoe said. “I think a lot is made about the guaranteed money in our contract and the different compensation structures that we have. But when you look at the possibility of money for each team, ours is vastly, vastly lower than the men.”
Rapinoe also talked about coming out publically. “It was actually on the plane ride home from that 2011 World Cup,” she said. “I was sitting next to my friend Lori, who’s also out and played on the team for a long time. And it was just – yeah, it just kind of became, like, why am I not out? This is not feeling right. And so I took, I think, a couple months to sort of figure out exactly what I wanted to do and then came out before the London Olympics in 2012.”
Rapinoe has been a member of the USWNT since 2006 and has made 185 appearances. During her time with the team, Rapinoe helped them win the World Cup in 2015 and 2019 as well as the gold medal in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Most recently Rapinoe scored two goals in the bronze medal game in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to earn another Olympic medal.
“It was hard off the field and hard for us on the field, much harder than it had to be,” Rapinoe told Olympics.com in August, “but in the end, we figured it out and we’re going home with a bronze medal, and I’m super proud of that. I’m so proud of this team.”
