
Team USA’s Jill Ellis
So far, these Olympic games have seen 43 out athletes show up to participate, Britain’s Tom Daly (and his diving partner) won bronze, gay torch bearers stopped for a same-sex kiss and a trans woman also carried the torch. But it’s not all positivity and rainbows, as chants of “bicha” and other homophobic slurs have dogged LGBTQ participants in the games, particularly members of the American women’s soccer team. Team USA is led by an out lesbian, Jill Ellis, and several members of the team are also lesbians.
One of them is U.S. midfielder Megan Rapinoe, who called the chant “personally hurtful.”
The Portuguese term “bicha,” reported OutSports, is similar to the “puto” chants that fans of Mexico’s World Cup team and of other Latin American countries use to express their extreme displeasure. But as OutSports points out, it’s odd for the slur to surface in women’s matches, given that the term is aimed at men.
Reports say that, although the word sounds similar to “bicha,” there were also separate chants of “Zika,” referring to Hope Solo’s openness about her concerns about the mosquito-borne illness.
Pink News has reported that players on Australia‘s soccer team said they, too, were targeted by the homophobic chants.
After the gold medal rugby match between Australia and New Zealand Monday night, Isadora Cerullo was surprised by her girlfriend, Brazilian stadium manager Marjorie Enya, who grabbed the microphone and proposed. Enya told the BBC,
“She is the love of my life. I know rugby people are amazing and they would embrace it.”
Enya and Cerullo, who has dual U.S. and Brazilian citizenship, live in Sao Paolo together so Cerullo could focus on her Olympics training. Enya said,
“The Olympic Games can look like closure but, for me, it’s starting a new life with someone. I wanted to show people that love wins.”
Yes, it’s good to remember that in the end, love ALWAYS wins.
(Bottom photo, Getty; via LGBTQ Nation, Motto)