ABOVE: Megan Rapinoe at the World Cup. Photo courtesy Rapinoe’s Facebook page.
The New York Police Department is investigating vandalism of Megan Rapinoe World Cup posters as a possible hate crime.
CNN reports that eight posters featuring Rapinoe in her U.S. Women’s National Team jersey were discovered on Monday to be vandalized at the Bryant Park subway station in New York City. The vandalized posters had “homophobic and defamatory slurs along with the phrase ‘Screw this ho.’” One poster also called Rapinoe a “shemale.”
“Hate has no place in the transit system and we work hard to make the subway a welcoming, safe environment for everyone,” MTA Deputy Communications Director Shams Tarek said in a statement to the New York Post. “We referred this to NYPD which responded to investigate. Our maintenance teams got the posters cleaned and we will have them replaced with new ones if necessary.”
Rapinoe, who is a lesbian, was in New York City on Wednesday with the rest of the USWNT team for a parade celebrating their World Cup win. Recently, Rapinoe has been vocal about her issues with President Donald Trump and his administration’s policies against the LGBTQ community and women.
While speaking at the parade Rapinoe addressed the crowd saying, “We have to love more. Hate less. We got to listen more and talk less. We got to know that this is everybody’s responsibility. Every single person here. Every single person’s who’s not here. Every single person who doesn’t want to be here. Every single person who agrees and doesn’t agree. It’s our responsibility to make this world a better place.”
