Nur Aziz

Her mother was supportive of her decision, but Rodriguez worried about the risks that transitioning might pose to her career, fearing she could "lose everything." Fortunately, her agency stood by her and agreed to only have her pursue female roles going forward.

Building Her Career: 'Pose'

In 2016, Rodriguez auditioned for the role of Peggy Schuyler/Maria Reynolds for Hamilton's Philadelphia production. The tryout was significant, as Rodriguez explained, "That's a cis female role, and a trans woman was called in for that, and I think that's actually very, very important." However, she had mixed feelings about the attention that resulted from her audition, not wanting her transgender identity to dominate her art. Ultimately she was not cast.

Rodriguez successfully landed smaller parts on stage and on the TV shows Nurse Jackie, The Carrie Diaries and Luke Cage. In 2017 she had a role in the independent film Saturday Church. But her big break was being cast in Pose.

Pose let Rodriguez work with series co-creator Ryan Murphy, after an earlier unsuccessful audition for his show Glee. It also reunited her with Billy Porter, the associate director of Rodriguez's Off-Broadway production of Rent, who starred in Pose as ballroom emcee Pray Tell, and Indya Moore, who'd co-starred with Rodriguez in Saturday Church.

Career Success

When Pose first appeared on screens in 2018, it made history for having the most transgender actors as series regulars on a scripted TV show. Pose focused on gay and trans people of color in the New York City ballroom scene at the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the '90s, when HIV and AIDS were decimating communities. As Blanca Rodriguez-Evangelista, the HIV-positive mother of the House of Evangelista, Rodriguez became the heart of the show. She appeared in the second season of Pose in 2019, and in Pose's third and final season in 2021.

Rodriguez recognizes Blanca and Pose's personal impact, saying in 2019, "It's changed my life as far as awareness and being seen and being heard and obviously, most importantly, being taken seriously as an actress." But she also understands how meaningful the show has been to viewers — "Pose has put a lot of trans women of color on the map, and shown that we have much more to our lives than just the stigma. It shows that we have chapters to our lives."

In 2019, Rodriguez starred as Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors at California's Pasadena Playhouse. Following Pose, she set to appear in a new TV comedy with Maya Rudolph.

Starring on Pose elevated Rodriguez's public profile. She has attended the Met Gala, sat in the front row at Fashion Week, appeared on magazine covers, become an Olay spokeswoman and joined other Pose cast members as grand marshals of 2019's Pride March in New York City. Rodriguez also delivered the keynote address at George Washington University’s fifth annual Diversity Summit.

Who Is Mj Rodriguez?

Actress Mj Rodriguez's love of the arts led to her starring as Angel in an Off-Broadway revival of Rent in 2011-12. This role influenced her decision to medically transition. Despite concerns that transitioning might hurt her career, Rodriguez continued to be cast in shows, most notably as Blanca, a trans woman who's part of the New York City ballroom community of the 1980s and '90s in the television series Pose (2018-21).

Early Life

Rodriguez, who is also known as Michaela Antonia Jaé Rodriguez (she chose to call herself Mj in honor of Spider-Man's Mary Jane Watson) was born on January 7, 1991, in Newark, New Jersey. Rodriguez's mother is African American and her father is half Puerto Rican, half African American. Rodriguez, who was raised in Newark, has said, "At a very young age I knew that being a young Afro-Latina, there were going to be some uphill climbs for me."

Rodriguez grew up with an interest in the arts: "When I was little all I could think about was just being on some kind of stage, whether it be on a live stage, whether it be on a set stage." Her mother encouraged her daughter via programs like the Summer Youth Performance Workshop at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.

While a student at Newark Arts High School, a 14-year-old Rodriguez joined a ballroom house in New York City (a similar experience to her character in Pose). She sometimes snuck out to participate. Rodriguez found acceptance and built confidence in the ballroom community, where "There were people like me living unapologetically." She has stated, "If I hadn't had that scene, I would never have been the person I am today."

'Rent' and Decision to Transition

When Rodriguez saw the 2005 movie version of Rent, she felt a connection to the character of Angel, telling her father, "I feel like that is me, Daddy." At 18, she was cast as Angel in a production of Rent at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.

While studying at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Rodriguez had the opportunity to audition for an Off-Broadway revival of Rent. She landed the part of Angel and joined the cast in 2011. Rodriguez had her own take on the role — instead of playing Angel as a drag queen, she considered Angel a trans woman. Her performance won her accolades, including a Clive Barnes Award for young performers.

In addition to being a career milestone, portraying Angel sparked Rodriguez's desire to medically transition. She had understood she was female from the time she was 7, but being in "Rent was one of the main defining moments, and it was like the precipice of my transition." Rodriguez said in 2018 that the role "let me live out loud and see the woman that I was on stage."

“When I look at the flag, what I want to see is us constantly trying to live up to these words and live up to this ideal where all people are free and all people do have all of their rights.”

—Megan Rapinoe

After the labor complaint stalled, Rapinoe was one of 28 players who filed a lawsuit in March 2019 against the U.S. Soccer Federation for pay discrimination. The suit was dismissed by a federal judge in May 2020, but Rapinoe and her teammates are working on an appeal. An agreement was reached in December 2020 between U.S. Soccer and the women's team to improve and bring parity to working conditions.

Rapinoe visited President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden at the White House to commemorate Equal Pay Day in March 2021. At the event she stated, "You see, despite all the wins, I'm still paid less than men who do the same job that I do."

Other Activism

Rapinoe, who realized she was gay while in college, publicly came out in July 2012, ahead of the Olympic Games. She was one of the first soccer players to do so. She made the decision because "it became very weird and not very authentic for me not to be out." Rapinoe has since continued to support LGBTQ+ rights. In March 2021, following state legislation that would block trans children from playing school sports, she wrote in an op-ed, "I believe that all kids, including transgender youth, should be able to participate in sports they love."

In August 2016, Colin Kaepernick of the San Francisco 49ers began kneeling during the national anthem at NFL games to protest racial injustice. Rapinoe decided to make the same gesture a week after Kaepernick's initial action, becoming the first well-known white athlete to kneel at her games. She said, "I have chosen to kneel because I simply cannot stand for the kind of oppression this country is allowing against its own people." She further explained, "Being a gay American, I know what it means to look at the flag and not have it protect all of your liberties."

Rapinoe's actions resulted in hate mail and, though her national contract was not canceled, she was taken off the team roster. She didn't play again until April 2017, after U.S. Soccer instituted a rule that required all players to stand for the anthem. She obeyed the directive, though she did not sing, while it was in effect. (It was repealed in June 2020.) Rapinoe has acknowledged that her career has since thrived, while Kaepernick has not played for the NFL since 2017.

Some members of Rapinoe's family didn't understand her decision to kneel during the national anthem. Her father's vote for Trump in 2016 alienated Rapinoe and her twin, who is also gay, though they reconciled at a family gathering.

Drawing on experience with her older brother, who became addicted to drugs and spent several stints in prison, Rapinoe has spoken out about the need for changing how the law deals with addicts. She endorsed Elizabeth Warren for president, conducted an Instagram Live session with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to explain the impact of the CARES Act, and supported the Democratic candidates in Georgia's 2021 Senate runoff elections.

For Rapinoe, there should be no divide between sports and activism. "I think the premise that athletes shouldn’t be political is just wack," she said in 2020. "Politics is gonna engage with you whether you engage with it or not." In addition, she asserted later that year, "I feel a responsibility to do what I can with what I have to try to make the world better in whatever way I'm able to."

Personal Life

Rapinoe's former partners include Australian football player Sarah Walsh and musician Sera Cahoone. She and Cahoone were engaged, but Rapinoe ended the relationship. She next became involved with star WNBA player Sue Bird, whom she'd met at the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

When Rapinoe was left off the team roster following her decision to kneel for the national anthem, Bird supported her. Rapinoe also credits Bird with helping her follow a diet and exercise regimen that got her in better shape at that time. "I really did transform. From a career standpoint, I owe so much to her."

The couple moved in together in 2018. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Rapinoe joined Bird in the WNBA bubble in Florida in 2020 so the two would not have to be separated. Rapinoe and Bird announced their engagement in October 2020.

Media Appearances

In 2018, Rapinoe and Bird appeared on the cover of ESPN The Magazine's Body Issue, the first openly gay couple to do so. In 2019, Rapinoe was the first out lesbian to show up in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. She was named Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year that same year.

Rapinoe was seen in the 2021 documentary LFG, about the fight for equal pay for women soccer players. Her one-hour special, Seeing America With Megan Rapinoe, was released in August 2020. Rapinoe was also one of the hosts for the ESPYs in 2020 and appeared in the reboot of The L Word.

Business

Rapinoe has been sponsored by Nike, Samsung and Vitamin Water. Her endorsement deals range from Schmidt's deodorant to Victoria's Secret. The organization Rapinoe SC sets up sports clinics, and Rapinoe co-founded a lifestyle brand called re-inc.

Who Is Megan Rapinoe?

Megan Rapinoe is a star soccer player. In 2019 she won the Golden Boot for scoring the most goals at the World Cup and the Golden Ball for being the top player in the tournament. That year she was also named FIFA's Women's World Player of the Year. In addition to her two World Cup titles, Rapinoe is an Olympic gold medalist. She has a unique style that often includes eye-catching pink or purple hair and is known to strike a unique pose — widespread arms, head tossed back and proud grin — when successful on the field. Rapinoe was one of the first soccer players to announce she was gay and has spoken out about the need for racial justice, equal pay and LGBTQ+ rights. In October 2020, her engagement to WNBA star Sue Bird was announced. Rapinoe's memoir, One Life, was published in 2020.

Early Life, Family and School

Megan Anna Rapinoe was born on July 5, 1985 in Redding, California, 11 minutes after her fraternal twin sister. Rapinoe grew up in the conservative town of Redding in northern California. Her mother, Denise, is a waitress. Her father, Jim, worked as a contractor.

Rapinoe grew up as the youngest of six. Her twin sister Rachael also excelled at soccer through college. Though Rachael did not reach the very highest level of the sport alongside Rapinoe, the two remain close.

Early Soccer Career

Around the age of 5, Rapinoe and her twin sister followed in their older brother's footsteps and began playing soccer. The two turned out to be gifted players. Because there were no girls' teams where they lived, they first joined a boys' soccer team.

Rapinoe attended Foothill High School where she ran track and played basketball in addition to soccer. While in high school, Rapinoe hoped her soccer skills would earn her a college scholarship, which the University of Portland ended up providing. She also played for U.S. Soccer's Under-17 youth team and delayed college enrollment to join the Under-19 team.

Rapinoe began at the University of Portland in January 2005 and helped the school's women's soccer team win the NCAA Division I Championship that year. In 2006, she played with the U.S. women's national team. She also remained part of the University of Portland's team, though ACL injuries to her left knee took her out of action in 2006 and 2007.

National and International Soccer

Rapinoe, who plays forward, rejoined the U.S. women's national team in 2009. In 2011, she participated in her first World Cup. She amazed the world during one match by sending the ball on a breathtaking cross-field journey to teammate Abby Wambach, who then scored and tied the game just before the clock ran out. Though the U.S. women lost the World Cup final in 2011, Rapinoe was there when they won gold at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Besides playing on the national team, Rapinoe was brought into different soccer clubs. She joined the Chicago Red Stars in 2009, and in 2011 played with the Philadelphia Independence, magicJack and Australia's Sydney FC. In 2013 see played in France with Olympique Lyonnais. By 2014 Rapinoe returned to the National Women's Soccer League and was playing with OL Reign in Washington state.

In 2015, Rapinoe and the U.S. women's team won that year's World Cup. She suffered an ACL injury in her right knee in December 2015, but still became part of the Olympic team in 2016. However, the U.S. women didn't medal at those Games.

Rapinoe was co-captain when the U.S. women again headed to the World Cup in 2019. During the event, she became headline news following the release of a video, made months earlier, in which she declared that even if the team won and received an invitation, "I'm not going to the f-----g White House." Then-President Donald Trump responded with taunts on Twitter, but the resulting pressure didn't disrupt Rapinoe's game. She scored two goals in the next quarterfinal match and led the team to World Cup victory. Afterward Rapinoe was true to her word and avoided the White House.

The 2020 Olympic Games were delayed for a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. When the Games took place in Japan in 2021, Rapinoe was part of the Olympic team.

Rapinoe has not set a date for her retirement from soccer. "I want to play as long as possible," she said in a 2021 interview. "I don't want to cut it short."

Fight for Equal Pay

Male soccer players in the United States often make more money than women, though the women's national team has been more successful. As a result, Rapinoe and others have battled for equal pay. In 2016, she and four other teammates filed a federal labor complaint against U.S. Soccer for wage discrimination.

Instead of heading to medical school after graduating, Yang became a graphic designer and pursued his comedy career via auditions and shows.

'Saturday Night Live'

In 2018, Yang started as a writer for season 44 of Saturday Night Live. That season he also stepped in front of the camera to appear as North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. In 2019, Yang's work on SNL resulted in an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Writing for A Variety Series.

Yang became a featured player for the following season of SNL, making him the first Chinese-American cast member in the show's history. The characters he portrayed included politician Andrew Yang and a Chinese trade representative known as Trade Daddy.

Yang remained a featured player in the 2020-21 season. He contributed to memorable sketches such as "Pride Month Song," about the tribulations members of the LGBTQ+ community can face in June. In March 2021, he spoke out against violence against Asian Americans on Weekend Update.

In July 2021, Yang became the first featured cast member of SNL — as opposed to the show's more established repertory players — to receive an Emmy nomination as Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Comedy Series. The episode he submitted for awards consideration was from April 2021, in which he portrayed the iceberg that sank the Titanic, who was promoting an EDM fantasia album.

At the start of Saturday Night Live's 2021-22 season, Yang was elevated from featured to repertory cast member. He's said of his time on the show, "I thought going in that I had to have this very broad, very palatable sensibility that works for everybody, but then the stuff that I'm the most proud of, and probably even got the most success from, was outwardly an expression of queerness or gayness. That’s been a nice surprise."

Instead of focusing on his own success in breaking barriers on SNL, Yang said in an interview with NPR in 2021, "I kind of don't really care about how my tenure on the show is perceived in any particular way, other than…I want this to facilitate something better for the next person."

Who Is Bowen Yang?

Bowen Yang was born in Australia in 1990 and grew up in Canada and Colorado. He is the first Chinese-American cast member of Saturday Night Live, as well as the first gay man to be part of the show for more than one season. Yang brought a new perspective to SNL, often performing in and/or writing scenes in which queerness is incorporated into characters without being used as a punchline. Yang is also known for his work on the podcast Las Culturistas and has appeared on several television shows, including a regular role on Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens.

Early Life and Family

Bowen Yang was born in 1990 in Brisbane, Australia. Yang's family left China for Australia so his father could pursue a doctorate in mining engineering. Because Yang has an older sister, he's noted, "I wouldn’t have been born if my parents had stayed in China," due to the one-child policy in effect at the time.

Yang's mother was a gynecologist in China. Yang grew up speaking Mandarin at home and going to Chinese Sunday school with his sister.

When he was young, Yang relocated with his family from Australia to Canada, where they lived outside Montreal. The family moved to the Denver suburb of Aurora when Yang was 9. There, he became a devoted fan of Saturday Night Live.

Yang attended Smoky Hill High School and was part of an improv troupe known as Spontaneous Combustion. Before graduating high school in 2008, he was voted "Most Likely to Be a Cast Member on Saturday Night Live."

Conversion Therapy and Aftermath

When Yang was 17, he left a chat window open on a shared family computer that alerted his parents to the fact their son was gay. Yang told The New York Times what happened next: "They just sat me down and yelled at me and said, 'We don't understand this. Where we come from, this doesn't happen.'"

"I had never seen my dad cry before up until that point," Yang shared with GQ. "And I was coming home from school every day to him sobbing." Yang's parents set up conversion therapy sessions in Colorado Springs, a two-hour drive away, and he agreed to go. He said of the experience, "It was just crazy. Explain the gay away with pseudoscience."

After completing the course of conversion therapy, Yang was allowed to attend New York University, where his sister was already a student and could keep an eye on him. During college, Yang again came out to his family. Though their initial reaction was once more unsupportive, he waited until his parents began to accept, or at least live with, his sexuality. "My dad every now and then will toe that line and be like, You could try women!" Yang admitted in 2020. "And I'm like…Don't. It's almost an endearing kind of homophobia, if such a thing exists."

Today, Yang maintains a strong relationship with his family. They have vacationed together, and his parents are proud of his success on Saturday Night Live. "They know that that job has been hard won for me, and that it means a lot, and it means a lot to them too," Yang said in 2021. "They think, 'Wow, he pulled it off.' And my mom said to me recently, she was like, 'Bowen you're very lucky to be doing this.' And I was like, 'I know, mom.'"

College and Early Comedy Career

Yang was a pre-med chemistry major at New York University, inspired in part by the TV drama Grey's Anatomy. However, he continued to do comedy while in school.