On Sunday, the U.S. National Women’s Soccer Team (USWNT) beat the Netherlands to become, for the fourth time, the FIFA Women’s World Cup champs. Their victory was all but assured as they played into the second half with neither team scoring, but in the end, Megan Rapinoe and Rose Lavelle put the U.S. in a 2-0 lead over the Netherlands.
The USWNT win came after a final in which every team (the United States, England, Sweden, and the Netherlands) had out bisexual or lesbian players. In fact, the high rate of queer players caused lesbian star Megan Rapinoe to remark during Pride month that it would be impossible to win a World Cup without gay players.
“You can’t win a championship without gays on your team. It’s never been done before—ever. That’s science, right there,” Rapinoe said, “For me, to be gay and fabulous during Pride Month at the World Cup is nice.”
And indeed, the final game came down to two queerest teams. The U.S. team itself has at least five openly queer members: Megan Rapinoe, Ashlyn Harris, Ali Kreiger, Adrianna Franch, and Tierna Davidson. The U.S. coach is also openly gay. And while there have been no announcements from Kelley O’Hara, she was seen after the game openly kissing her girlfriend in the stands. The Netherlands also has five out players: Anouk Dekker, Vivianne Miedema, Sherida Spitse, Merel van Dongen, and Daniëlle van de Donk.
After the game, Megan Rapinoe re-upped her claim about the Women’s World Cup wins relying on gay players on twitter. The USWNT tweet a photo of Rapinoe between Harris and Krieger (who are engaged to each other with plans to marry following their victory) with the text “Told ya.” Rapinoe retweeted and added, “We already discussed this. Science is science. Gays rule,” before tagging Harris and Krieger.
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