Megan Rapinoe offered a heartfelt defense of transgender inclusion in sports because 'lives are at risk'

• Megan Rapinoe defended transgender inclusion in women's sports in an interview with TIME.

• The US soccer star said anti-trans legislation is "monstrous" and a matter of life or death.

• She added: "your kid's high school volleyball team ... isn't more important than any one kid's life."

Megan Rapinoe spoke out strongly against recent legislation that limits transgender athletes' participation in women's sports.

The US Women's National Team and OL Reign superstar told Time magazine's Sean Gregory that she is "100% supportive of trans inclusion" and that the underlying message of these bills — that trans people are "gross and different and evil and sinful and they can't play sports with their friends that they grew up with" — is "monstrous."

"I think people also need to understand that sports is not the most important thing in life, right? Life is the most important thing in life," Rapinoe told Time. "And so much of this trans inclusion argument has been put through the extremely tiny lens of elite sports. Like that is not the way that we need to be framing this question."

"We're talking about kids," she added. "We're talking about people's lives. We're talking about the entire state government coming down on one child in some states, three children in some states. They are committing suicide."

Rapinoe further explained that the narrative surrounding transgender people's participation in sports is overwhelmingly dictated by "the right's talking points because they're very loud" and "relentless." Because of that, the pink-haired striker — who is both an out and proud member of the LGBTQ+ community and an avowed Democrat — said most people "do not know very much about the issue."