Michael Dos Santos (born 30 April 1983 in

Birigui Birigui is a city in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. The city is located on the northwest of the state and has 124,883 inhabitants ( IBGE/2020) and 530.9 km2 of area. The name ''Birigui'' comes from the Tupi–Guarani language and means " ...

) is a Brazilian

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

player who currently plays for Vôlei Futuro men's team. He became the first player in professional volleyball history to

come out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBTQ people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. This is often framed and debated as a privacy issue, ...

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

Coming Out

On 1 April 2011, in the Gymnasium of the Stream, in

Contagem Contagem () is a city in the center of the state of Minas Gerais, in Brazil. It is only from the capital, Belo Horizonte, and forms part of a metropolitan area with a population of 4.8 million. Over time, the city's geographic boundaries were lo ...

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil, being the fourth largest state by area and the second largest in number of inhabitants with a population of 20,539,989 according to the 2022 Brazilian census, 2022 census. Located in ...

, in the first game of the Superliga male semifinals between Sada Cruzeiro Vôlei and Vôlei Futuro, won by the team mining by 3 sets to 2, the player Michael was subjected to taunts of "Bicha! Bicha!" ("faggot") from supporters of Sada Cruzeiro, because of rumors concerning his sexual orientation. Four days after the game, dos Santos publicly acknowledged that he is gay, sparking an internal discussion within the volleyball sport culture. On April 9, 2011, in the second game of the Premiership in the Placido Rocha gym in

Araçatuba Araçatuba is a city located in the northwest of São Paulo state, Brazil. The city has 198,129 inhabitants (IBGE/2020) and spans . The city name comes from the Tupi language and means "abundance of araçá" (a fruit, Psidium cattleianum). Araç ...

Sao Paulo State SAO or Sao may refer to: Places * Sao civilisation, in Middle Africa from 6th century BC to 16th century AD * Sao, a town in Boussé Department, Burkina Faso * Serb Autonomous Regions (''Srpska autonomna oblast'', SAO), during the breakup of Y ...

, in which Vôlei won for 3 sevens and 2, the team issued a series of actions against the

homophobia Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who identify or are perceived as being lesbian, Gay men, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred, or ant ...

suffered by Michael. A giant banner calling for an end to prejudice was opened in the bleachers, while all fans received pink bats at the entrance of the Placido Rocha. The libero Mário Júnior, in turn, worked with a colored shirt. Furthermore, the team called for Sada Cruzeiro to be sanctioned by the Brazilian Confederation of Volleyball due to the homophobic taunts from the bleachers, and the Confederation board fined Sada US$32,000 on April 13. The fine is being appealed.

Stats

Dos Santos plays as Middle Blocker and is 202 cm tall.

References

1983 births Living people Brazilian men's volleyball players Brazilian gay sportsmen LGBTQ volleyball players People from Birigui Volleyball players from São Paulo (state) 21st-century Brazilian sportsmen {{Brazil-volleyball-bio-stub