Megan Rapinoe Tells Kamala Harris Women's Sports Progress Has 'Led to a Pretty Significant Regression' in Rights

Since Enes Kanter Freedom filed his federal lawsuit against the Chicago Sky on September 4 and Ohio's Amy Acton came out this week backing a state law restricting girls' sports to biological females, the argument over who gets to compete in women's sports has kept grinding through courtrooms and statehouses. This week it showed up on a podcast microphone instead.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris joined retired U.S. women's soccer star and activist Megan Rapinoe on Rapinoe's podcast, 'A Touch More.' The interview ranged from Harris's childhood to her political future, but Rapinoe steered part of the conversation toward her own career and what she sees as a larger shift in women's rights.

'I'm thinking about my own experience being a female athlete, and I went through, in the prime of my career, just the most historic time in women's sports,' Rapinoe said. 'I mean, it was crazy in the best ways. We saw a huge amount of progress, which has led into a pretty significant regression in terms of just equal rights and people's rights in general. I definitely think those two are tied.'

Rapinoe did not, in that quote, name a specific policy or say what she means by 'regression.' She also pressed Harris on how being a woman shapes her approach to governing, to which Harris responded, 'Well, I've always been a woman, so I don't know what to tell you.'

Elsewhere in the interview, Rapinoe asked Harris why she went into politics given that she'd constantly be reminded she's 'still a woman' and 'still Black.' Harris credited determination and 'enjoying hard work,' and recalled being taken to civil rights marches in a stroller by her parents as a formative influence.

What Rapinoe's argument actually is

Rapinoe appears to be making a broader claim: that the same cultural and political backlash driving restrictions on transgender athletes in women's categories is part of a wider rollback of protections for women generally, including reproductive rights and workplace protections. That's a coherent argument even if she didn't spell it out on this particular podcast, and it's one she and other athlete-activists have made in longer form elsewhere.

But the argument runs into an obvious problem when applied to sports specifically. Sex-based eligibility rules in women's categories exist because of a documented physical performance gap between male and female athletes after puberty, not because anyone is barred from playing. A male athlete is free to compete, just in the men's category. Framing that separation as a loss of 'rights' for women conflates two very different things: legal protections for women as a class, and a competitive-fairness rule that exists specifically because women, as a class, could not compete on equal footing without it.

Rapinoe has waded into this fight publicly before. She has previously drawn criticism for comments directed at former college swimmer Riley Gaines and WNBA guard Sophie Cunningham, both of whom have been vocal supporters of sex-based eligibility rules in women's sports. Those past exchanges are separate from this podcast but are part of the same running argument Rapinoe keeps having in public.

Where this fits

None of the outlets that carried this interview, including Fox News and its syndication partners, obtained a follow-up comment from Rapinoe clarifying what specifically she meant by 'regression.' Harris's team has not put out a statement responding to or expanding on the sports comments either.

The unresolved question is whether Harris, who is widely reported to be weighing another run for office, will take a clearer public position on transgender-athlete eligibility rules herself. This issue split Democrats badly during the 2024 cycle and remains live in state legislatures and federal courts right now, including the girls' sports law fight playing out in Ohio.