Megan Rapinoe’s fraternal twin Rachael Rapinoe has revealed that her soccer star sister outed her as gay to their mother to take the heat off of herself after her own coming out went badly.
The 34-year-old former soccer player shared her coming out story while appearing on an episode of Cyd Zeigler’s podcast Five Rings To Rule Them All, explaining that she and her sister discovered their sexuality when they attended the University of Portland.
‘I immediately started dating someone of the same sex, and at that time I had no idea that I was attracted to women, but I knew that I had always felt different, and I knew that Meg probably felt the same way,’ Rachael said.
Sister, sister: Rachael Rapinoe (right) revealed that her soccer star twin sister Megan Rapinoe (left) had outed her as gay to their mother after her own coming out went badly
Looking back: Rachael explained that she and Megan grew up in a rural, religious area in California and were ‘never told that women dated women and men dated men’
‘We had never spoken about it but we had that kind of twinship, so I knew Meg had always felt a little bit different.’
The sisters were raised in a rural, religious community in Redding, California, and she explained that they were ‘never told that women dated women and men dated men, and that some women felt like men and vice versa.’
She said they didn’t really learn about the LGBTQ community until they moved to liberal Portland for school.
Rachael had started college a semester before Megan because she was at the under-19 World Cup with the US team. When her twin joined her that spring, she was already in a relationship, though she never called it that.
‘We ended up dating on and off for that whole year,’ she recalled. ‘Of course, we didn’t call ourselves girlfriends, we were just best friends, right? But we slept together every night.’
Learning about themselves: Rachael (pictured) said she and Megan discovered their sexuality when they attended the University of Portland together
Big moment: Rachael said she and Megan (center) came out to each other in 2005 while she was going through a breakup with her first love
Rachael said she finally came out to Megan a year later while going through a difficult breakup with her first love.
‘I was really sad and she knew something was going on,’ she said. ‘So I told Megan I’d been going through a breakup and I was dating this girl, but I still would not consider myself gay or bisexual or anything. I just, you know, fell in love with a person.
‘Meg then told me that she was attracted to women and that she thought she was gay,’ she continued. ‘Once she came out to me that spring semester of 2005, once we had talked about it, Meg was like “this is who I am.”
‘She’s always been very steadfast in that and I think she just felt relieved that she had a place in the world.’
Rachael admitted she had a more difficult time coming to terms with her sexuality because they grew up Christian and had wrestled with her religious beliefs.
Their mother, Denise, could sense something was wrong and came to visit them at school shortly after the twins had come out to each other.
Taking the heat off herself: Shortly after they came out to each other, Megan came out to their mother, and when it went badly, she blurted out: ‘Well, Rachael’s gay too!’
No angry: Rachael said she should actually thank her sister because she ‘probably wouldn’t have said anything for a very long time’
‘I was heartbroken. I was going through my first real breakup, and so my mom came up to Portland because she knew something was going on,’ Rachael explained.
‘I was at class, and her and Megan got to talking, and Megan came out to her. She didn’t take it very well, and she was very upset, and Meg’s second reaction after coming out was: “Well, Rachael’s gay too!”
‘And that’s basically how I came out. Which was fine,’ she insisted. ‘I really didn’t care, because I probably wouldn’t have said anything for a very long time, so you know, I should thank Megan for blasting me like that.
‘That was her defense mechanism, to tell my mom and dad that I was gay too. So that’s my coming out story, and Megan’s.’
Fifteen years after they came out to their parents, Rachael said she doesn’t always feel welcome in her home town.
Using her platform: Megan has used her platform as a soccer hero to champion for equal rights as a member of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN) and Athlete Ally
Opening up: Megan (pictured with her girlfriend Sue Bird) talking about her own coming out in December, saying: ‘I didn’t know that I was gay until I got to college’
‘My family is wonderful, but when you go to Redding, California, you’re not overcome with this sense of acceptance,’ she explained. ‘You know, it’s rural. It’s red.’
Like her sister, Rachael played soccer in college and then professionally in Europe before she retired. She went on to found the CBD company Mendi, a hemp-derived recovery line of products for athletes.
Megan has used her platform as a soccer hero to champion for equal rights as a member of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN) and Athlete Ally, an LGBTQ athletic advocacy group.
She recalled her own coming out while speaking to WBUR in December, sharing a story similar to her sister’s.
‘Shockingly — this is like the greatest shock of all time — I didn’t know that I was gay until I got to college,’ she said, explaining everything clicked for her when she moved to Portland for school.
‘I was like, “Oh my God, my life can finally start in its sort of holistic sense,”‘ she said.