In his memory he had always a Basketball in his hands, told Daniel Arcos. Meanwhile, the 26-Year-old at the Club Deportes Castro plays in Chile’s first Basketball League. And now Arcos is also considered as an indicator for the visibility of lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans-people and Intersex (LGBT) in the world of professional sports in Latin America.
If Coming out of a professional athlete is a great message, also because it only a very few athletes to speak in Public about their homosexuality or gender identity. Arcos says the Corona pandemic have given him the time to be Coming out think and believe, ultimately, this decision.
“Why do I do it now, while I’m still healthy? Why don’t I show me as I am?”, the young man wondered. “My athletic performance nothing will change and I could open the way for many others after me, in professional sports, a little.”
doubts about athletic abilities?
Ramón Gómez from the Chilean Gay and lesbian Association of MOVILH is of the view, the reactions to the Coming out of the basket ballers had been “generally quite positive”. The show, which has experienced a “profound social change in the country in the last twenty years”.
The people of MOVILH, the fight for the rights of sexual minorities, also work with sports managers in the fight against discrimination. “The clubs have the key in Hand, against discrimination, but you have as yet done too little,” says the Chilean activist.
Many professional athletes would not dare to talk about your Homo – or bisexuality, because they “fear as second-class athletes, and doubts about their athletic abilities arise,” says Gómez. Chile an anti-discrimination law, the shooter in the theory of sexual minorities, but in General the sports clubs had no rules to this in practice. Another aggravating factor, as Gómez that “there is in Chile no full equality”. The country does not have legalized marriage for all.
campaign #double-pass in Germany
Chile is a special case. Because worldwide, there are only a handful of openly gay professional athletes. Even in countries with higher social acceptance for sexual diversity, such as Spain or Germany, dares hardly an Athlete to go for this reason to the Public. Fears are obviously well-founded: According to a Europe-wide study by researchers at the University of Cologne shows, the social exclusion in the Form of disparaging Remarks and discrimination.
In Germany, Benjamin Näßler, the reigning “Mr. Gay Germany” was launched, a few months ago, the campaign #double-pass to combat homophobia and transphobia in Sport. “I was in a sports team and know how hard it is when one is 17 years old,” says hobby kicker Näßler. “Comments such as ‘don’t be a faggot’ or ‘what a gay Pass’ imprinted on the Psyche of young people.”
Trans-woman in professional football,
Juan Pablo Morino, sports Secretary of the Argentine LGBT Federation, is primarily concerned with the issue of Machismo in the Sport, which is especially common in football is still far. In football, it was the standard insult, to taunt a player as a “girl” or “fag”. This is true not only for the handling of the Team, but also for the Calls of the Fans from the stands.
But there is also a change. Mara Gómez Recently became the first Trans player in the squad of an Argentinian first division team. Also in Argentina the professional Basketball Sebastián Vega made last March, his homosexuality publicly.
“In the Mexican League there are several Gay. We know it, but you can’t come out of the closet,” says Ivan Lara from the national LGBT sports Federation in Mexico. He stressed how important it was for clubs to educate their Fans, “because, after all, they are businesses with a social responsibility.
With education, enlightenment and political measures, the respondents are unanimous, will be open one day, the doors of professional sports for LGBT people. One day, a Coming-out will have no news value. “Sport is a human right, says UNESCO,” the Mexican activist Lara clearly. “We demand this right for our Community.”
author: Enrique Anarte
*The contribution of “homosexuality is a taboo in professional sports” will be released by Deutsche Welle. Contact with the executives here.
Deutsche Welle
