title:  U.S. Women’s Soccer Star Megan Rapinoe Kneels During National Anthem To Support Kaepernick
text: The protest is growing.Most people don t seem to understand that freedom and liberty is a two-way street. That when soldiers fight and die for our rights they did so for all of them.At least that s what conservatives don t understand since they ve been critical almost to the point of calling for violence against San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick for not standing during the national anthem in protest of police brutality. I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,  Kaepernick told the press following a game last month.  To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder. Kaepernick has been joined in his protest by other athletes, but now he has the support of one of the biggest stars in women s soccer.Megan Rapinoe plays on the United States national women s team on the world stage, including the Olympic games. And on Sunday, she became the highest-profile white athlete to protest inequality in America by refusing to stand for the national anthem.When the anthem began playing Rapinoe simply took a knee, and her action brought even more attention to the issues Kaepernick is raising. It was a little nod to Kaepernick and everything that he s standing for right now,  Rapinoe told the media.  I think it s actually pretty disgusting the way he was treated and the way that a lot of the media has covered it and made it about something that it absolutely isn t. We need to have a more thoughtful, two-sided conversation about racial issues in this country. IN addition to racial issues, Rapinoe s kneel also drew attention to LGBT issues such as discrimination. Being a gay American, I know what it means to look at the flag and not have it protect all of your liberties. It was something small that I could do and something that I plan to keep doing in the future and hopefully spark some meaningful conversation around it. It s important to have white people stand in support of people of color on this. We don t need to be the leading voice, of course, but standing in support of them is something that s really powerful. If the American flag really stands for  liberty and justice for all  we wouldn t be seeing police officers unjustly killing black people in the streets and we wouldn t see conservatives constantly trying to pass new laws in order to legalize discrimination against gay people.But we ARE seeing these injustices take place and until they are fixed perhaps it s time we shelve the national anthem until the flag has earned back its respect.Featured image via Twitter