Watch the speech below.
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New York City feted the US women’s soccer team that won the World Cup after beating Netherlands 2-0 in France. As the team went through New York’s “Canyon of Heroes” with a ticker-tape victory parade, team captain Megan Rapinoe said, “Love more, hate less.”
She made sure to highlight the team’s diversity of race and sexual orientation, saying: “There has been so much contention in these past few years.”
The adoring crowd cheered them on with chants of “equal pay” and “USA” referring to the squad’s much-publicized gender discrimination lawsuit that they had filed against the US Soccer Federation in March. The lawsuit demands that they are given equal pay as their male counterparts who have a significantly higher base pay.
The sentiment was also echoed by fans with one even giving the team a banner that read “Parades Are Cool, Equal Pay Is Cooler.”
The squad was joined by New York Mayor Bill de Blasio on Rapinoe’s float and later presented them with the symbolic “Keys to the City” at City Hall.
Rapinoe addressed the crowd at City Hall, “This group is so resilient, is so tough, has such a sense of humor, is just so bada**. We have pink hair and purple hair. We have tattoos, dreadlocks.
“We got white girls and black girls, and everything in between. Straight girls and gay girls.”
Star striker Alex Morgan also spoke, saying: “We have been known as America’s favorite soccer team. But from here on out, we’ll just be known as America’s team.”
While notable achievers such as astronauts, soldiers, and record-breakers have been honored with the parade, over the last few decades it has usually been used to laud sports victories. But for the US women’s soccer team, the ticker-tape celebration is only one of several celebrations meant to honor the team.
The players are expected to appear at the ESPYs in California (the Oscars of the US sports world). Then they hit the road again next month for a five-game friendly international match series titled “Victory Tour” which kicks off with a match against Ireland on August 3 to be held at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena California.
But one stop that is glaringly absent from the team’s itinerary is a visit to the White House.
Rapinoe has long been known as a Trump critic and vowed last month that she won’t show up at the White House even if they won the World Cup and she was invited.
Trump shot back with a tweet saying, “win first before she talks.”
Rapinoe told ESPN that she had “held up my end of the bargain on that one” and added that her Twitter exchange with Trump actually inspired the team.
She also told Anderson Cooper, “I would not go and every teammate that I’ve talked to explicitly about it would not go.”
“I don’t think anyone on the team has any interest in lending the platform that we’ve worked so hard to build and the things that we fight for and the way that we live our life,” Rapinoe said.
“I don’t think we want that to be co-opted or corrupted by this administration.”