Michael Dos Santos (born 30 April 1983 in Birigui) is a Brazilian volleyball 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 LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...

as gay.

Coming Out

On 1 April 2011, in the Gymnasium of the Stream, in Contagem, Minas Gerais, 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)". Ara� ...

, Sao Paulo State, 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 attitude (psychology), attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, h ...

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 Mario is the Italian, French, Croatian, Spanish, Portuguese, Bulgarian, Greek, and English form of the Latin Roman name Marius. In Croatia, the name Mario was among the most common masculine given names in the decades between 1970 and 1999, and ...

, 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 LGBT volleyball players People from Birigui Sportspeople from São Paulo (state) {{Brazil-volleyball-bio-stub