LGBT fans demand safety in Brazil’s stadiums

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LGBT fans have traditionally not been safe in football stadiums the world over, except for the home stadium of the Bahia club of Brazil, who have partnered with Ona Rudra, founder of the TorcidaLGBTricolour fan collective.

have always been known for its progressive attitude and are currently a second division club, who are currently in talks for a potential sale to the City group, which also owns Manchester City. The fan collective now numbers at 15 people of the LGBTQ+ community, who are now comfortable enough to attend football matches wearing rainbow-coloured clothes and carrying rainbow-coloured flags.

This contrasts with other stadiums where homosexual fans receive extensive abuse and are forced to conceal their identities, so as not to risk assault, homophobic chants, insults and hostility.

Brazil is known for the abuse directed at the homosexual community often, with 16 cases of reported homophobia in football stadiums in 2021. While LGBTQ+ fan groups are present in almost all clubs, they are largely restricted to the online domain due to fear of ostracization if they attend matches in person.

According to author Luiza Aguiar dos Anjos, who has penned books about gay fans, this stems from the inherent machismo culture that dominates most fan groups. Apart from Bahia, the only other club to welcome LGBTQ+ fans in its stadium are Vasco da Gama, who along with general fan collectives that define itself to be non-fascist such as Tribuna 77 associated with football club Gremio, are the only other safe spaces for LGBTQ+ fans.

Meanwhile newer LGBTQ+ fan clubs such as PorcoIris are hoping that they can attend matches openly from 2023, with the presidential election set to play a crucial role. According to founder Carlos Costa, Brazil has been going backwards in its attitude towards minorities and the community looks forward to the day when they can attend matches freely.