Korbin Albert, Megan Rapinoe Brad Smith/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images; Rodin Eckenroth/FilmMagic
Korbin Albert, the U.S. Women’s National Team midfielder who now wears Megan Rapinoe’s old No. 15 jersey, is under fire for liking and sharing anti-LGBTQIA+ posts via social media, including one directed at Rapinoe.
Albert, 20, apologized in a statement posted via Instagram on Thursday, March 28, just hours after Rapinoe, 38, blasted her for the posts.
“I want to sincerely apologize for my actions on social media,” Albert’s statement began. “Liking and sharing posts that are offensive, insensitive and hurtful was immature and disrespectful which was never my intent.”
“I’m really disappointed in myself and am deeply sorry for the hurt that I have caused to my teammates, other players, fans, friends and anyone who was offended,” she continued. “I truly believe that everyone should feel safe and respected everywhere and on all playing fields. I know my actions have not lived up to that and for that l sincerely apologize. It’s an honor and a privilege to get to play this sport on the world stage and I promise to do better.”
Talk about a power couple! Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe, both Olympic gold medalists, started dating in 2017. The pair first met while backstage at a photo shoot for the 2016 Rio Olympics. “She was in her basketball uniform and she had her hair down,” Rapinoe told NBC in 2021. “We kinda crossed [paths] and […]
Albert had reposted a series of anti-LGBTQIA+ posts via her TikTok account and “liked” an Instagram reel captioned, “God taking time off to perform miracles to make sure Megan Rapinoe sprains her ankle in her final ever game.”
The reel referenced Rapinoe’s final game of her career, which came in the 2023 NWSL Championship. She suffered an ankle injury three minutes in and was unable to return. The TikTok videos, meanwhile, come from a Christian sermon saying that being gay or “feeling transgender” is wrong.
This isn’t the first time Albert has posted anti-LGBTQIA+ content to her social channels. Last Fourth of July weekend, she shared a TikTok video in which she said her family’s “pronouns are U.S.A.”
Rapinoe did not hold back in her reaction to the hurtful posts, questioning whether Albert is truly making the spaces she occupies more inclusive and safer.
Paving the way. LGBTQ+ athletes have been breaking down barriers and challenging prejudices for decades, but it wasn’t always easy. Tennis player and LGBTQ+ rights advocate Billie Jean King won the famous “Battle of the Sexes” match against Bobby Riggs in 1973, more than 40 years before same-sex marriage became legal throughout the United States. […]
“For people who want to hide behind ‘my beliefs,’ I would just ask one question, are you making any type of space safer, more inclusive, more whole, any semblance of better, bringing the best out of anyone,” she wrote via Instagram on Thursday. “Because if you aren’t, all you believe in is hate. And kids are literally killing themselves because of this hate. Wake TF up! Yours truly, #15. “For all my trans homies enduring this horrific treatment day in and day out, I see you and hear you and I am WITH YOU.”
Rapinoe’s former teammate and USWNT captain Becky Sauerbrunn reposted Rapinoe’s statement, adding, “Well said, @mrapinoe.”
Albert made her USWNT debut in a friendly last December. The team is scheduled to play again on April 6, when they take the pitch in Atlanta against Japan as part of the 2024 SheBelieves Cup.
