How One of Brazil's First Openly Gay Soccer Refere Changed the Game - Atlas Obscura

Contents:

• HOW ONE OF BRAZIL’S FIRST OPENLY GAY SOCCER REFERE CHANGED THE GAME
• YOUNG SOCCER REFEREE HAS THRIVED ALL THE WHILE BEG OPENLY GAY
• GAY PRO SOCCER REFEREE CLAIMS OVER 30% OF MALE SOCCER PLAYERS ARE GAY OR BI. IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?
• THIS GAY MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER REFEREE IS G OUT TO EASE HIS MD
• PRI ON THE PCH: DO SOCCER HAVE A GAY PROBLEM?
• GAY SPANISH SOCCER REFEREE QUS AFTER ABE AT GAM
• MLS ASSISTANT REFEREE MATTHEW NELSON REVEALS HE IS GAY TO "HELP OTHERS"
• BRAZILIAN SOCCER REFEREE SAYS HE IS GAY, HOP TO INSPIRE OTHERS
• BRAZILIAN SOCCER REF SAYS HE IS GAY, HOP TO SPIRE OTHERS
• GAY FOOTBALL REFEREE THKS ’40 PER CENT’ OF PLAYERS AND OFFICIALS ULD BE LGBTQ+
• FIFA REFEREE IGOR BENEVENUTO OUT AS GAY MONTHS BEFORE THE WORLD CUP

HOW ONE OF BRAZIL’S FIRST OPENLY GAY SOCCER REFERE CHANGED THE GAME

Gay civil rights activist Luiz Mott found one of Brazil’s first gay rights anizatns, Gpo Gay da Bahia. Acrdg to Gpo Gay da Bahia, roughly “3, 100 homosexuals” were killed om hate-motivated crim between 1980 and 2009, and the rate of vlence agast gay Brazilians is creasg. Je, along wh Válter Senra, who went by the nickname “the Bian, ” Plo Rodrigu da Silva, and Sérg Cenezi, were the few openly gay Brazilian refere facg such scty 1980s.

Acrdg to Plar, the print of the Brazilian Football Conferatn (CBF) at the time, João Ellis Filho, stated that no homosexual referee would manage the Copa União petn. The homophobic cints happened que often, but they didn’t phase Je.

YOUNG SOCCER REFEREE HAS THRIVED ALL THE WHILE BEG OPENLY GAY

“When Margarida me on televisn to intify himself as a mp gay [man], we supported his visibily, ” says Luiz Mott. Ironilly, his me, Armando Marqu, mted durg his tenure at CBF to riddg the anizatn of gay refere—or those, like Clés, who were assumed to be gay. Almost 20 years later, was big news the soccer world when FIFA-ranked Brazilian referee Igor Benevenuto me out publicly as gay the months before the 2022 World Cup Qatar, where gay sex is illegal.

GAY PRO SOCCER REFEREE CLAIMS OVER 30% OF MALE SOCCER PLAYERS ARE GAY OR BI. IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?

For refere and assistants like Sérg Cenezi or gay soccer leagu like LiGay, that’s what Je reprented the 1980s.

Soccer Feratn official for 11 years, love sports and am openly gay. Beg gay and passnate about sports is somethg that was new to me, but I am here to ntue breakg stereotyp.

THIS GAY MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER REFEREE IS G OUT TO EASE HIS MD

While I am proud to ll myself a Hoosier, I grew up around many who didn’t believe was OK to be gay. I jt thought was normal, but I didn’t realize until later my youth that I was gay. The profsnal soccer referee Brazil who recently me out publicly as gay is now claimg that 30% to 40% of profsnal soccer players are gay or bisexual.

“Thirty to forty percent of them are homosexual or bisexual, or have done somethg at one time wh another man, ” Benevenuto is reported to have said. “You would be surprised at jt who is homosexual this dtry. He’s certaly right about one thg: I’d be pretty shocked if a third of profsnal soccer players were gay or bisexual.

PRI ON THE PCH: DO SOCCER HAVE A GAY PROBLEM?

In talkg wh women profsnal sports, the number of gay and bi women pro sports is very high. Yet the ia that a third of profsnal athlet men’s soccer are gay or bi fi all logic. A 2019 survey of men Brazil found that only about 2% of rponnts said they were gay or bi, wh about 95% sayg they are heterosexual (the rt eher didn’t know how to rpond or want to rpond).

The ia that 2% of Brazilian men intify as gay or bi — but 30% to 40% of the natn’s male pro soccer players are — is ankly impossible. The culture surroundg men’s sports is macho and at tim homophobic — hardly a place you’d expect gay and bi men to flock to. Still, ’s impossible to believe that a third or male pro soccer players are gay or bi.

We’ve seen wild claims before that have never panned out, cludg one guy who said he knew 20 gay profsnal soccer players. When I talk to people about Provcetown the summer — cludg people who’ve been there once or twice — and I ask them how gay is, the rponse is often somethg like “Oh ’s 90% gay” or “jt about everyone there is gay. But when you’re ed to your lol town or cy beg 3-5% gay, sudnly a third feels like “everybody’s gay!

GAY SPANISH SOCCER REFEREE QUS AFTER ABE AT GAM

(By the way, if you’re lookg for that, the Fire Island P is actually 90% gay men. There are, I’m sure a handful — maybe even more — of gay and bi men pro soccer, cludg Brazil.

"Cyd Zeigler, who scrib himself as a gay sports wrer, h out at the backlash, scribg as "crazy" that Amerins would turn their back on the team bee of this tweeted: "LOL the 'Amerins' who are now sudnly hopg the US los at the #WorldCup bee the team has some rabow flags around the facily Qatar.

MLS ASSISTANT REFEREE MATTHEW NELSON REVEALS HE IS GAY TO "HELP OTHERS"

Image hatg your untry jt bee s soccer team might not hate gay people.

Rather than ntug to hi om my fears of rejectn, I cid was time to stop hidg the closet and tell everyone my life that I am gay. Lookg back, seems lghable how terrified I was of sayg those three words, "I am gay. In June, I realized that one of those distractns for me was hidg a part of who I am: the fact that I am gay.

BRAZILIAN SOCCER REFEREE SAYS HE IS GAY, HOP TO INSPIRE OTHERS

Now that I am no longer tryg to hi that I am gay and beg te to myself, has helped foster a more tstg and rpectful relatnship wh fellow refere.

Hidg the fact that I am gay om my iends, fay and lleagu was distractg, unproductive and mentally drag. Before g out, I would often read the stori of other athlet g out as gay.

BRAZILIAN SOCCER REF SAYS HE IS GAY, HOP TO SPIRE OTHERS

It helped me realize that beg gay is jt one part of who I am as a person. This month’s gay pri celebratns ci wh two of the world’s most high-profile sports tournaments: Copa Ameri — hosted for the first time by the Uned Stat — and Euro while the NFL and NBA have passed the tone of havg openly gay athlet their top profsnal leagu, not a sgle soccer player eher petn has e out as leav the “betiful game” whout any gay male role mols even an age when sponsors are unncerned about players’ Rogers of LA Galaxy plays agast New York Cy FC on Augt 23, 2015. Is one of only two untri known to have field gay players s senr men’s team — Californian wger Robbie Rogers reprented his untry 18 tim and sred two goals but, like Germany’s midfielr Thomas Hzlsperger, he me out after his ternatnal reer was over.

GAY FOOTBALL REFEREE THKS ’40 PER CENT’ OF PLAYERS AND OFFICIALS ULD BE LGBTQ+

“Once aga we have top ternatnal tournaments featurg the bt players the world and supposedly none of them are gay, ” said Jeff Kfman, a 26-year-old player and external sportg activi director for the world’s first gay soccer club, the New York Ramblers.

“There uld be 100 if not 1, 000 gay soccer players across the world at the higher levels of the game, yet no role mols the petns. ”Two years after Michael Sam was drafted to the NFL, and three years after the NBA’s Jason Colls ma history as the first openly gay player the four major U.

At a game Sunday Glendale, Ariz., Mexin fans chanted the gay slur "puto" — meang “faggot” — spe a YouTube plea om the team for an end the practice.

FIFA REFEREE IGOR BENEVENUTO OUT AS GAY MONTHS BEFORE THE WORLD CUP

“Do soccer have a problem wh beg gay?