Trump Critic Megan Rapinoe Makes BBC’s List of 100 Inspiring and Influential Women

U.S. soccer star Megan Rapinoe made the BBC’s 2019 list of the 100 most inspiring and influential women across the world.

Rapinoe, an out and proud lesbian, raised eyebrows during the 2019 Women’s World Cup games by turning the tournament into her personal political platform to attack President Trump and the United States.

The BBC celebrated the two-time World Cup winner and co-captain of the U.S. Women’s National Team, and 2019 Best FIFA Women’s Player, for being an “advocate for equality in soccer, taking legal action against the US Soccer Federation over equal pay, calling out racism by fans and has become the face of LGBTQ rights in the game.”

“If everybody was as outraged about racism as those who suffer it, if everybody was as outraged about homophobia as LGBTQ players, if everybody was as outraged about the lack of equal pay as women, that would be the most inspiring thing for the future to me,” Rapinoe told the BBC.

Rapinoe joined Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and teen-aged climate alarmist Greta Thunberg on this year’s list.

Thirteen of the 100 women on the list are athletes, including Bangladeshi Cricketer Jasmin Akter, Iranian athlete Kimia Alizadeh, British athletes Dina Asher-Smith, Bethany Firth, and Jawahir Roble, Nigerian Salwa Eid Naser, Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraiser-Pryce, Australian Tayla Harris, China’s Huang Wensi, German cyclist Fiona Kolbinger, Japanese sumo wrestler Hiyori Kon, and Egypt’s Farida Osman.

Also of note, the BBC included trans woman Nisha Ayub, who was placed in a male prison at age 21 for breaking Malaysia’s sharia law prohibiting a man from wearing women’s clothing in public.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.