Out Spotlight

 Today's Out Spotlight is an American soccer midfielder who is currently a midfielder for the Seattle Sounders Women of the W- League, a member of the United States women's national soccer team and Olympian. Last week she came out in Out Magazine.  Today's Out Spotlight is Olympian Megan Rapinoe.

 Megan Anna Rapinoe was born July 5, 1985 grew up in Redding, California with her parents, Jim and Denise, and five siblings, including her twin, Rachael.

In high school, Rapinoe did not play soccer for her school's team instead playing for the Elk Grove Pride club team.  She was a part of the club from 2002 through 2005. Elk Grove plays in the Women's Premier Soccer League.  The club won state and league championships, and were the national runner-up in 2003. Over her four years, she scored 25 goals for the club. But she did compete in other sports for her high school including track as a freshman and sophomore, and basketball as a freshman, sophomore, and senior all while making the honor roll every semester. She was named Parade and NSCAA All-American as a junior and senior and to the McDonald's All-American Game in 2004.

Rapinoe and her twin, Rachael, both attended the University of Portland in Portland, Oregon. The Rapinoe twins almost committed to Santa Clara University before choosing to play for the Portland Pilots.  They both played soccer competitively until Rachael was critically injured and sidelined from the game.

In 2004,  she did not play college soccer what would have been her freshman season in order to play in the 2004 FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship where the United States placed third.

In 2005 as a freshman (in terms of her eligibility status), Rapinoe helped the Portland Pilots to an undefeated season and the NCAA Women's Soccer Championship. She was a NSCAA First Team All-America and was on the Soccer America First Team Freshman All-America. She made the NCAA Women's Soccer Championship All Tournament Team and was the West Coast Conference Freshman of the Year. She was also an All-West Coast Conference First Team and an All-West Coast Conference Freshman Team selection. Rapinoe played and started all 25 games as an attacking midfielder, scoring 15 goals and added 13 assists for 43 points. That year, she also had seven recorded game-winning goals.

As a sophomore in 2006, she was among the nation's leading scorers with 10 goals and 2 assists in just 11 matches before suffering her first season-ending Anterior cruciate ligament injury against Washington State University on October 5. She joined Tiffeny Milbrett and Shannon MacMillan as the only Portland Pilots to score 25 goals and 15 assists in just two years.

As a junior she appeared in just two matches off the bench early in the year before suffering a season-ending anterior cruciate ligament injury for the second consecutive season. She was granted a medical hardship waiver by the NCAA, but never used it.

As a senior in 2008, Rapinoe started all 22 games of the season and was named a Soccer America First-Team All-American and a NSCAA Second Team All-American as she led the Portland Pilots and the West Coast Conference in assists (13). She was also voted West Coast Conference Player of the Year.

 She had one more season of college eligibility remaining, due to her NCAA medical hardship waiver, but opted to enter the Women's Professional Soccer draft instead. Rapinoe's 88 point career (30 goals, 28 assists) is 10th in the school's history despite playing just 60 total games.

She was selected second overall in the 2009 WPS Draft to Chicago Red Stars of Women's Professional Soccer. In the inaugural 2009 Women's Professional Soccer season, Rapinoe appeared in 18 games (17 starts, 1375 minutes) and scored two goals and assisted on three others. She was named a Women's Professional Soccer First-Team All-Star. In 2010, she struggled with illness, but played in 20 games (19 starts) scoring one goal on the last touch of the last game of the season.

In December 2010 she moved on to Philadelphia Independence after the Chicago Red Stars ceased operations. Rapinoe appeared in four games and scored one goal before she was traded to the MagicJack.



While in Germany playing in the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup, Rapinoe was traded to the MagicJack. It was reported that the "cash considerations" involved in the transfer were $100,000. This was the most expensive trade in WPS history. On October 25, 2011, the Women's Professional Soccer League voted to terminate the MagicJack franchise, leaving Rapinoe and many other big names as free agents for the 2012 season.


In October 2011, Rapinoe signed with W-League (Australia) team Sydney FC as a guest player for two games. In her second and final game against Melbourne Victory, she scored with eight minutes remaining to seal three points for Sydney.

Rapinoe trained with the team at 2006 Residency Training Camp in Carson, California. She came into training with the team early in 2006 and played in four matches. Rapinoe made her United States Women's National Team debut on July 23, 2006 against Ireland. She scored her first and second senior team goals on October 1, 2006 against Chinese Taipei.

Due to two separate anterior cruciate ligament injuries, Rapinoe did not play for the senior team in 2007 or 2008. She did not play in either the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup or the 2008 Olympics.

Upon her return to the United States Women's National Team in 2009, Rapinoe led the team in points with five (two goals and one assist). She played in seven games, starting in six. Rapinoe scored against Norway in the Algarve Cup in a 1-0 victory, and also added a goal against Canada in Toronto.

In 2010 Rapinoe started eight of the ten games she played and scored four goals with two assists. One of the assists came in the second match of the Women’s World Cup playoff series against Italy that set up Amy Rodriguez’s game-winning goal. Rapinoe scored against Sweden and China and twice against Guatemala at the CONCACAF Women's World Cup Qualifying tournament, in which she played three games.


Rapinoe was selected as part of the U.S. team for the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup. She came on as a substitute in a group stage match vs Colombia in the 50th minute and scored almost immediately to put the U.S. up 2–0. Rapinoe started in the USA's last group stage match versus Sweden, in which the U.S. lost 2–1. During the quarterfinal match against Brazil, Rapinoe came on as a substitute and lofted a cross into the box for Abby Wambach's game-tying extra-time header; she would later convert her shot during the penalty shootout to help send the United States to the semifinals. Following the match against Brazil,  she was named ESPN's Next Level Player of the Week for completing 5 of 10 crosses while the rest of the team was 0 for 18.   She went on to notch two more assists in the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup semi-final and final against France and Japan, respectively. She ended the tournament with 1 goal and 3 assists.

Following her appearance in the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup, Rapinoe's hometown of Redding officially made September 10, 2011 "Megan Rapinoe Day". Rapinoe won the Harry Glickman Professional Female Athlete of the Year award at the 60th annual Oregon Sports Awards held on February 12, 2012.



She is a member of the Women's USA Olympic Team.  Later this month  she will join her teammates to compete in the 2012 London Olympic Games.

"Known for her killer crosses (one in overtime to Abby Wambach during the World Cup last year helped Team USA tie Brazil and send the game to penalty kicks) and fabulous crop of short blonde hair (which has its own T-shirt and Twitter account), Rapinoe has long been a favorite among soccer fans and gay women for her infectious attitude and intense play."

On July 2, 2012, Rapinoe came out as gay in an interview with Out magazine. It was confirmed that Rapinoe was dating Australian soccer player Sarah Walsh for three years and had even taken her home to meet her family at Christmas time.

Rapinoe feels women’s teams are generally more accepting. “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.”

Her twin sister Rachael remains a passionate supporter of her sister’s achievements and stressed her admiration of her sister’s decision to be transparent concerning her personal life. “I think it’s incredibly brave to use this talent and platform that she’s been blessed with in a positive way,” Rachael says, “not just on the field, but providing an example of how to treat people off the field as well.”

 “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.”