The untimely death of basketball superstar Kobe Bryant has sparked an anti-homophobia campaign in Brazilian soccer.
Bryant switched from the number 8 jersey to number 24 before his 2006-07 season with the Lakers, and played as number 24 for the remainder of his tenure with the team. His death in a helicopter crash on January 26 has inspired Brazilian soccer players, who widely avoid the number 24 shirt, to reconsider the homophobic stigma around the number.
In a popular (and now illegal) Brazilian gambling game called Jogo Do Bicho (“The Animal Game”), each number from one to 25 is assigned an animal. The number 24 represents the deer, which has long been associated with gay men in the country, according to Reuters. For this reason, soccer players have avoided wearing the 24 jersey in fear of being teased or ridiculed.
Now, soccer magazine Corner has launched a campaign to end the stigma. Using the hashtag #PedeA24 (“Ask for 24”), they began posting pictures of different club shirts sporting the number. Many Brazilians — including prominent journalists and sports figures — recirculated the campaign.
The Brazilian soccer club Bahia was the first popular club to join in Corner‘s anti-homophobic efforts, and is now encouraging other teams to follow suit. Their defensive midfielder Flávio abandoned his 5 shirt to don number 24, in a gesture against homophobia and in honor of Kobe Bryant, according Brazilian news site Globo Esporte. Another popular club, Corinithians, also chose to start using the 24 jersey, despite refusing to employ the number earlier this year.
“Football can be a channel to accentuate the worst of our society, such as racism, aggression, violence and intolerance, but it can also be used in different ways, for culture, affection, sensibility and to improve human relations,” Bahia’s president Guilherme Bellintani told Reuters. “We think that clubs have to choose whether they will be channels for love or for hate. We choose love.”
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