Soccer legend Megan Rapinoe says trans rights advocacy cost her a brand deal

Megan Rapinoe says AI flagged her as a brand 'risk' over trans rights advocacy

Soccer legend, in Marie Claire article, says brands are running from 'mere association'

U.S. soccer legend Megan Rapinoe is known as much for her athleticism — winning two World Cups and two Olympic medals — as for her longtime advocacy work.

And she claims the latter just cost her a brand deal.

A few months ago, Rapinoe was packing to fly out for a FIFA World Cup 2026 shoot when she got a call from her agent that they'd pulled her from the spot, she wrote in a July 13 guest piece in Marie Claire. The brand, which she didn't name, had recently implemented artificial intelligence software that "flagged potential talent for 'risk,'" Rapinoe wrote.

"Mine was that I spoke in support of trans rights," she wrote.

"Anti-inclusion politicians have made the conversation around trans athletes in sports so muddied and full of false fearmongering that brands lacking moral clarity are running from mere association."

Organizations and brands are increasingly using AI to screen celebrities and influencers for endorsement risk to avoid potential controversy.

A recent article in Insurance Business magazine says so-called celebrity insurance tools address "mounting corporate anxiety over partnerships that can deliver 80 per cent increases in brand recognition — or wipe out billions in shareholder value within weeks."

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Rapinoe, who described herself as "opinionated" in a previous interview with CBC's The Sunday Magazine, has taken on a number of social and political causes over the years, including equal pay, abortion and the rights of trans athletes.

So it's not necessarily surprising, but it is disappointing that the brand allegedly flagged Rapinoe as a "risk," said Cheri Bradish, director of the future of sport lab and sport initiatives at Toronto Metropolitan University.

"You would think that they would know the ethos of an athlete," Bradish said.

"Female athletes, in order to become female athletes, and the movement of female sports, the leaders are all tied to being changemakers and speaking out against societal norms."

CBC News has reached out to representatives for Rapinoe and not yet heard back.

There's a price to speaking out

In 2012, Rapinoe blazed the trail as one of the first professional athletes to come out publicly as gay just weeks before leading the U.S. women's soccer team to a gold medal.

She has been a longtime advocate for equal pay for women in U.S. soccer. She also sparked national controversy in 2016 for kneeling during the national anthem at a match in solidarity with NFL player Colin Kaepernick. In 2019, she made headlines after saying in an interview that she wouldn't visit Donald Trump's White House if her team won the World Cup that year.

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By 2020, she was named one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people.

"In an era where many demand that athletes 'stick to sports,' Rapinoe — a proud feminist and an out gay advocate — refuses to be silenced," the magazine wrote.

More recently, she has publicly defended transgender athletes, speaking out forcefully about bans on transgender athletes in sports, and dedicating her Time Woman of the Year honour to the transgender community in 2023.

"Speaking out pays a price for any athlete," Bradish said, citing the example of Kaepernick, who says the NFL ostracized him after he knelt during the U.S. national anthem in 2016 in response to racism and police brutality in the U.S.

"And I would suggest those on the margins, from different ethnic groups or sexual orientations, do seemingly pay the price."

In her article, Rapinoe decries a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that upheld laws in Idaho and West Virginia banning transgender women from female sports team.

"These laws are some of the most intense political assaults on LGBTQ+ people in recent years, and they are turning back the clock on our rights, including revived threats against marriage equality," she wrote.

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She also describes a proposed ballot measure in Washington that would require all girls to be medically certified in order to play on sports teams, and could subject them to genital exams for verification.

"In their witch hunt for a few trans kids in the entire state who play school sports, I-638’s backers will drive thousands of girls out of sports because their parents cannot afford the necessary testing or refuse to submit their daughters to genital inspections."

Rapinoe posted the article to the social media site Threads on Monday, and thanked Marie Claire "for the space and support to write this."

"This is not and has never been about sports or protecting women. To all my trans family, I’m with you forever and always."

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Natalie Stechyson has been a writer and editor at CBC News since 2021. She covers stories on social trends, families, gender, human interest, as well as general news. She's worked as a journalist since 2009, with stints at the Globe and Mail and Postmedia News, among others. Before joining CBC News, she was the parents editor at HuffPost Canada, where she won a silver Canadian Online Publishing Award for her work on pregnancy loss. You can reach her at natalie.stechyson@cbc.ca.

With files from the Sunday Magazine