While being a gay woman in the US comes with its ‘disadvantages’, being white brings a ‘privilege’ many don’t have, says national soccer captain Megan Rapinoe.

The OL Reign star told PBS Newshour: "Clearly, being a woman, being a gay woman in this country comes with disadvantages. I have been underpaid my entire life. I have only been able to legally marry five years in this country federally. So, there's some things obviously that we still need to work on.

"But when it comes to then putting that in comparison to the really sort of brutal and cruel racial history that we have in our country, I can see where I'm also incredibly privileged and incredibly advantaged.

“And I look at it not as something that's negative, but I have this privilege, so I get to use this privilege in order to help dismantle all of these unfair systems and cruel systems and, frankly, the just downright wrong systems in our country.”

But Rapinoe is optimistic that things will improve under President elect Joe Biden.

“I think that the Biden administration has already pointed to a willingness to work on racial justice and take it very seriously. I think we have a long ways to go.”