EXCLUSIVE: ‘Just because it might make your team better doesn’t make it good’: Former education secretary Betsy DeVos berates Megan Rapinoe for saying she would ‘welcome’ a trans player to a women’s soccer team
- “I don’t understand how a female athlete can say it’s right and fair for a biological male to compete,” DeVos told DailyMail.com.
- She says female athletes don’t have to worry about running into a man in their locker room
Former Education Sec. Betsy DeVos responds to comments by American soccer star Megan Rapinoe who said that biological men should be able to compete on the women’s national team.
After recently announcing her plans to retire, Rapinoe told Time magazine this week that she would welcome transgender women to the national team.
“I see trans women as real women,” said the controversial football star in the run-up to the upcoming Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
“It’s not understandable to me in any way, I don’t understand how a female athlete could say it’s right and fair for a biological male to compete,” DeVos fired back during an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com.
She said she doesn’t see how the case could be made to add a man to the women’s team.
“I see trans women as real women,” said controversial football star Rapinoe this week
“There are many advantages, physical advantages that a man has. And just because it might make your team better doesn’t make it right,” DeVos continued.
“The logic here just doesn’t work in the long run.”
Rapinoe is an outspoken LBGTQ+ advocate who helped the US female players negotiate a new employment agreement with the US Soccer Federation that effectively pays female athletes the same as their male counterparts.
But with 22 states banning transgender students from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity, Rapinoe has turned her focus to that fight.
“It’s especially frustrating when women’s sports are weaponized,” she continued. “Oh, now we care about fairness? Now do we care about women’s sports? Those are total bulls***. And show me all the trans people who take advantage of being trans in sports. It’s just not happening.’
DeVos, who was a competitive swimmer himself, disagrees with the soccer star’s assessment, saying male and female sports should be separate based on fundamental biological differences.
She also spoke about the growing problem of biological men using female locker rooms.
“It doesn’t make any sense at all,” she told DailyMail.com, saying that young female athletes already put a lot of time and energy into pursuing their passion and perfecting their sport.
And these hard-working female athletes wouldn’t have to worry about “running into a guy” in their locker room and then competing against him in the swim meet or on the field for that matter, DeVos said.
“It doesn’t make any sense at all,” DeVos told DailyMail.com during an exclusive interview
Lia Thomas (center) at the NCAA Championships
She acknowledged that it is a sensitive subject, especially for individuals for whom this is a real problem.
“But I’m sure there are ways to ensure that [transgender athletes] also have the opportunity to have competition. It doesn’t have to be on a women’s team.’
Last month, swimmer Kylee Alons said she was forced to change in a pantry to avoid undressing in front of biological male trans swimmer Lia Thomas.
Alons, a state swimming champion, is said to have revealed the awkward ordeal at the 2022 NCAA Championships during a meeting with Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla.
“Today I met Kylee, the most decorated swimmer in NC State history,” Steube tweeted.
She told me how she changed clothes in a locker at the NCAA Finals instead of experiencing the sexual harassment that comes with undressing in front of Will “Lia” Thomas — a biological male who insisted on being in the female locker room. are.’