Megan Rapinoe Loves Her Fox News-Watching Parents

Soccer champion Megan Rapinoe is renowned nearly as much for her progressive activism as she is for her prowess on the pitch, but her parents are conservatives who still watch Fox News, even as the network frequently lambastes their daughter. Still, Rapinoe, who made headlines when Donald Trump went after her on Twitter for saying she wouldn't visit his White House, is close with her folks and talks to them every day, she told The Guardian.

Last month the Olympic Gold Medal and multiple World Cup champion revealed that her she likely has a few family members who voted for Trump. Now she's said that she believes her dad, who supports her, likely voted for him.

"I'm very similar to how they are, even though I think my dad voted for Trump and I'll say, 'I don't get it. How are you simultaneously as proud as punch of me, and watching Fox News all the time, [who are doing] takedowns of your daughter?' That's why I'm like, 'You guys need to go to therapy,'" Rapinoe said.

Rapinoe has upset conservatives before for kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality. But she said that her activism has helped to spur conversations with her "generally pretty conservative family."

"I think it's actually been really amazing because it's forced us all to have really hard conversations," Rapinoe said. "I mean, the kneeling thing was like, oh, God. The family was just shook by the kneeling."

The world-class athlete said that she has had "major blow-ups" with her more conservative parents. At one point, she laid down an ultimatum in terms of their needing to accept that she and her twin sister, Rachael Rapinoe, are both gay.

"My parents said, 'What are people going to say? We don't want things to be harder for you.' But I don't think I ever saw ways in which it was harder," Rapinoe said.

"I was like, 'You guys need to get on board or get out.' We had some tense times, but it came down to 'You're either in this or not.'"

Since the World Cup, Rapinoe has only amped up her activism. She has continued to speak out against the Trump administration and she and her teammates on the U.S. Women's National Team are taking their fight for equal pay in soccer to court after mediation with the Soccer Federation broke down last week.

Amid her activism, Rapinoe speaks with her folks every day. She acknowledges that change doesn't happen overnight.

"I would love it if people understood you should never say racist things and be OK with gay people, or whatever it is. But, obviously, it doesn't happen that quickly," she told TheGuardian.