Betsy DeVos slams Megan Rapinoe for saying she would “welcome” a trans player to a women’s team

Former Education Sec. Betsy DeVos is responding to comments from American soccer star Megan Rapinoe by saying that biological men should be able to compete on the women’s national team.

After recently announcing her plans to retire, Rapinoe told Time magazine this week that she would welcome transgender women to the national team.

“I see trans women as real women,” the controversial soccer star said ahead of the upcoming Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

“It’s in no way comprehensible to me, I don’t understand how a female athlete can say that it’s right and fair for a biological male to compete,” DeVos responded during an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com.

She said she doesn’t see how the case could be made for adding a man to the women’s team.

‘There are many advantages, physical advantages that a man has. And just because he can improve his team doesn’t make it right,” DeVos continued.

“The logic here just doesn’t work in the long run.”

Rapinoe is an outspoken LBGTQ+ advocate who helped the US players win a new employment agreement with the US Soccer Federation that effectively pays female athletes the same as their male counterparts.

But now, with 22 states banning transgender students from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity, Rapinoe has turned her attention to that fight.

“It’s particularly frustrating when women’s sports are weaponized,” she continued. ‘Oh, now we care about justice? Do we care about women’s sports now? That’s total bulls***. And show me all the trans people who are taking nefarious advantage of being trans in sports. It’s just not happening.

DeVos, who was a competitive swimmer, disagrees with the soccer star’s assessment, saying that men’s and women’s sports should be separated based on basic biological differences.

He also addressed the growing problem of biological men wearing women’s locker rooms.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” she told DailyMail.com, saying that young athletes are already spending a lot of time and energy pursuing their passion and perfecting their sport.

And these hard-working athletes shouldn’t have to “worry about running into a guy” in his locker room and then competing against him in the swim meet or on the field, DeVos said.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” DeVos told DailyMail.com during an exclusive interview.

Lia Thomas (center) at the NCAA Championships

He acknowledged that it’s a touchy subject, especially for people for whom this is really a problem.

‘But I’m sure there are ways to find to make sure that [transgender athletes] get a chance to have competition too. It doesn’t have to be on a women’s team.

Last month, swimming star Kylee Alons said she was forced to change in a storage closet to avoid undressing in front of male biological trans swimmer Lia Thomas.

Alons, a champion swimmer in the state, reportedly revealed the awkward ordeal at the 2022 NCAA Championships during a meeting with Rep. Greg Steube, a Florida Republican.

“Meeting with Kylee today, the most decorated swimmer in NC State history,” Steube tweeted.

“She told me how she changed in a storage locker at the NCAA Finals instead of experiencing the sexual harassment that comes with undressing in front of Will ‘Lia’ Thomas, a biological male who insisted on being in the women’s locker room.”