Melinda French Gates: What Billie Jean King and Megan Rapinoe Taught Me About Courage

Melinda French Gates, Founder of Pivotal Ventures, shared a post on LinkedIn:

“I’ve been thinking a lot about courage lately—what it means, where it comes from, and how it shows up in our lives.

This topic came up in some recent conversations I had with tennis legend Billie Jean King and soccer star Megan Rapinoe as part of my new series, Moments that Make Us.

What struck me is that, even though Billie Jean and Megan were born more than four decades apart, their stories have intersected in some pretty powerful ways.

Billie Jean was outed as a lesbian in 1981. She wasn’t ready to come out yet, and she told me that her lawyer and publicist urged her to deny the allegations, but she refused. ‘My parents, especially my mother, always used to say, ‘To thine own self, be true.’ That kept pounding on my head,’ she said.

So she decided to tell the truth. And she lost millions of dollars in endorsement deals overnight.

As painful and difficult as that moment was, Billie Jean knew that, by being true to herself, she would make it easier for others to do the same. Fast forward to 2012, and that’s exactly what happened when Megan Rapinoe came out right before the London Olympics.

‘I had a more joyous experience with it,’ Megan told me. ‘I don’t have a story full of pain and struggle, and I felt comfortable being very joyous about it and talking about it openly.’

Since then, Megan has used her voice to advocate for others, from protesting racial injustice to speaking out for trans youth and athletes. And, of course, Billie Jean continues to build on her own historic legacy of activism and championing women in sports.

As I reflected back on my conversations with Billie Jean and Megan, the more I realized they have something else in common: Instead of shutting out or vilifying those who disagree with them, they strive to understand where other people are coming from. They choose to extend the same grace they want for themselves. And as true team players, they work to build bridges and find allies.

In today’s climate, with so much divisiveness and polarization, that kind of empathy is truly courageous.”

Source: Melinda French Gates/LinkedIn