This chapter-book-level graphic biography of the soccer superstar gives readers a simple but engaging narrative of her accomplishments on and off the field, from childhood onward. It discusses not only her sporting achievements but also her advocacy for women athlete’s equal pay and for LGBTQ rights.
In addition to charting her rising athletic career, the book notes her 2009 romantic relationship with Australian soccer player Sarah Walsh, and explains that they kept their relationship secret from the public because many people still did not accept “LGBTQIA+ relationships.” It discusses the Defense of Marriage Act and bans on marriage for same-sex couples, but also the rising movement for LGBTQIA+ rights.
On the plane ride home from the 2011 World Cup, it continues, Rapinoe said to her teammates that she wasn’t going to hide who she was anymore. In an interview with Out magazine, she came out, which the book notes “can be a difficult, emotional process,” although Rapinoe wanted to set a positive example for others.
In 2015, on the same day the U.S. Women’s National Team won a quarterfinal match at the World Cup, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges. This “granted same-sex couples the same rights as opposite-sex couples. That included the right to marry.” That might have been worded better: fact is, the case only ruled on marriage, not on all rights. Same-sex couples and LGBTQ individuals needed subsequent cases, like Pavan and Bostock, to gain additional equal rights (rights that are still being challenged). Also, the phrase “opposite-sex couples” would have been more inclusive of nonbinary identities as “different-sex couples.” I would therefore have said simply: “The case granted same-sex couples the right to marry just like different-sex couples.”
Rapinoe and four other players later fought for the U.S. Women’s Team to be paid the same as the Men’s Team, we learn, a battle they won in 2022, the year before Rapinoe retired.
An Afterward adds a few more details of her life, including her engagement to basketball star Sue Bird, and her fight for reproductive rights and “the rights of trans athletes to compete in women’s sports” (though it would be more accurate to say “trans women athletes”; trans men aren’t fighting to compete in women’s sports). A short Glossary and some references and further resources round out the backmatter.
Despite a few small places where the wording could be improved, the book’s heart is in the right place. Overall, this is a rousing tale of an incredible athlete, with a visually engaging graphic format that many should enjoy.
