Brazilian Athlete Comes Out After Homophobic Slurs During Game

Brazilian Volei Futuro player, Michael dos Santos has recently come out due to his having homophobic slurs chanted at him during a volleyball game against SadaCruzeiro. Four days after the game, where his team lost 3-2, Santos took the rare step and came out on the GloboEsporte website. “I am gay. Everyone here knows it,” Santos stated.

With Santos being a sports star, this is proving to be a major move. Since there are a handful of sports athletes prominently out around the world – with most of them being female athletes. Santos’ admission is showing that despite the countries recent statistics that showed LGBT backlash has risen to 113 percent since 5 years ago – the views of homosexualityis slowly starting to change for this machismo driven country.

The times are changing, indeed. This year, the first openly gay congressman, Jean Wyllys de Matos Santos was elected making LGBT rights part of his platform. On Thursday, the Brazilian top court ruled that same-sex civil unions must be recognized. The ruling gave the 60,000 self-identified same-sex couples the full rights as those of straight couples pertaining to alimony, inheritance, retirement – even though, it is not considered marriage most of the countries LGBT community supports the decision. Proving that, despite what others may think; Brazil has a prevalent LGBT population that is being heard and listened to.

In Santos’ case, during his next game, fans showed up with pink glow sticks with his number, fans of the opposing team (Sada Cruzeiro) also carried apologetic banners. During the entire game maintenance crews wore rainbow shirts in support, and the town’s mayor also hung a banner denouncing homophobia.

Even though, most view Brazil as a third world country; it appears they are rich in their out pouring of respect – which a lot of countries considered “first world” appear to lack.

“The degree of [sic] civilisation of a country can be measured by the way people in a nation treat their homosexual community,” Claudio Nascimento, lead of Rio de Janeiro state’s GLT Committee stated, according to O Globo.

by Cynthia S. Wright http://lezgetreal.com

Below is reporting from last Month when some fans became nonhumans and turned on this athlete because they thought he was gay. adamfoxie*

After the homophobic incident committed by Sada Cruzeiro monsters fans last week which made headlines in Brazil and in some parts of the world, the loving fans of Volei Futuro made it clear over the weekend that they are against prejudice and homophobia.

The fans displayed this huge banner “Volei Futuro Contra O Preconceito!” during the 2nd semifinal match hosted by Volei Futuro. With loud chants of love and support, Michael (the victim) & Team Futuro defeated Sada in another epic 5 set match.

Michael’s teammates also showed their support by wearing PINK.

The world’s best libero, Mario Jr., put on a rainbow colored jersey. As far as we know, Volei Futuro has decided to commercialize the rainbow jersey due to heavy fan demand.

The Torcida (crowd)…

We can’t find enough words to explain how grateful we are for these volleyball fans who believe that we are all equal and that no one is above the other. Regardless if you’re straight, gay, bisexual, fat, thin, yound, old, Asian, Black or whatever you are, you have the right to play and to enjoy the sport of volleyball.

Michael’s teammates and the fans are just amazing!

We’ve said this before but we just want to let everyone know out there that volleyball has room for you regardless of what and who you are. Michael’s story has inspired a lot of people. Those 3,000 people who chanted homophobic slurs against him are outnumbered by the fans from all over the world who have showed love and support for Michael.

His tale marks the beginning of a battle against prejudice and inequality in the world of volleyball.

It has begun…