Date: Fri, 14 Jul 95 13:32:14 ARG From: ales@wamani.apc.org (Alejandra Sarda) Subject: FOOTBALL COACHER DISCRIMINATES AGAINST GAYS IN ARGENTINA Dear Queerplanet friends: Sorry for the long mail, but I wanted to share with you all three articles that are being very much discussed about in Argentina right now. Like my friend Jane said, I hope you can enjoy a taste of "other voices under the sea of First World voices". Alejandra Sarda PAGINA 12 (Newspaper) Thursday, July 13, 1995 Unsigned article EVERYONE IS DISCUSSING THE IDOLS' SEX First it was long hair and now it is the condition. The coacher of Argentina's football selection, Daniel Passarella, said he would not invite a homosexual player to join the team, during a long interview published by El Grafico [a very popular sports magazine]. Yesterday, Carlos Jauregui [gay activist from Gays por los Derechos Civiles] said the coacher is lying because he has two homosexual players, to whom he didn't identify, in the team. That short reply from Passarella "I would not invite a homosexual" raised a debate to which Pagina 12 invited two sexologists - Maria Luisa Lerer and Leon Gindin- and three coachers: Oscar Cavallero, Eduardo Manera and Toti Iglesias. "Passarella might not be an skinhead but he speaks as if he were one. His discriminatory attitude is so gross that is not needed for him to shave his head to be able to say something like this. The myth that says a you can easily see a gay's condition surfaces here: there are very 'macho' homosexuals that are succesful at playing sports. In rugby, a very 'macho' sport, there are players whose sexual choice is another man. And that has nothing to do with physical performance", told a very indignated sexologist Maria Luisa Lerer to Pagina 12. The interesting aspect of the football community is that, behind its unanimous, voiced manliness it hides, like every repressive community does, a double moral. The Bambino Veira case [a coacher accused of sexually molesting a male child] is the most famous among many denounced cases where coachers of inferior divisions or otherwise powerful football men molested younger players or fans. Nevertheless, three coachers consulted by Pagina 12 stated that, fortunately, it never had happened to them. "I have been a coach for 20 years, I have worked in 8 countries and I have not known of a single case. But I think that the fact of a player been homosexual does not impede him from being part of a group", explained Eduardo Manera, Estudiantes de la Plata's coach. Anyway, Manera as well as the other two coachers consulted, Oscar Cavallero from Deportivo Espa¤ol and Toti Iglesias, appeared much more tolerant than Passarella. "If somebody in my team were a homosexual, I would first look for knowledgeable advice and then would try to help him. If he does not harm the group, I would let him stay because you can not interfere with somebody's private life. It's the same with drugs", said Iglesias. "I'm not one of those who would attack someone just because he is a homosexual. I go on with my life and let everyone do the same", answered Cavallero. "Which could be the shortcomings of having a gay in the selection team? There is the fear of 'contagiousness' many time, but it is proved that the fact of being near a homosexual does not mean by itself that one is going to incur in homosexual practices", another sexologist, Leon Gindin, asks himself, regarding Passarella's prejudices and then he adds: "Homosexuality is a diferentiated quality, like blond hair or blue eyes. It's someone's choice to love a person of his/her own sex just like a heterosexual loves somebody from the opposite sex, most surely a product of biological, genetics roots that has nothing to do with sickness. It's a choice that makes a 5% of the population to incur in homosexual practices. And, as that proportion exists in the general population, it means that estatistically there must be at least one homosexual person in the selection team". If estatistics says it is probable and reality shows that many sports-people -let us mention Martina Navratilova, for a start- have kept their gay condition without major troubles, what is that really bothers Passarella? No much thought is needed to discover it: the image. Suit and tie, short hair, no gays, at least no out gays. But the image might also change: in San Francisco, the gay mecca, gays are wearing their hair short while heterosexuals wear it long. "WE GAYS ARE EVERYWHERE" (exerpts) by Claudia Selser "I'm not mentioning any names", says Carlos Jauregui, from Gays por los Derechos Civiles [Gays for Civil Rights, GCD] as soon as he comes to the phone. His phone has not stopped ringing since he stated, during a radio interview, that Daniel Passarella lied because in fact there are gay players with the selection team. "It is not a question of forcing someone out, because we will respect the individual decisions to keep silent" -add Jauregui when questioned by Pagina 12- "even knowing that it would be good for the community that celebrities reveal their sexual identity, like Martina Navratilova did". - But when you say that there are many homosexual players, aren't you indirectly encouraging suspition and denuntiation? - It is proved that everywhere in the world the coming out, when famous people disclose themselves as homosexuals as Martina Navratilova did, has been positive for the gay community. By saying this, we only wish to make clear that Passarella is wrong when he says he would not invite homosexual players because he has already invited them to join the team; we know perfectly well that in the previous selection team as well as in the current one there are gay players. Nevertheless, we will never give out the names of those who do not want to be identified. But, what are we talking about if gays and lesbians are everywhere? A player's and a team's performance is not measured up by the players sexual orientation. Other countries' selection teams have had openly homosexual players, like The Netherlands', where a player even got married. - I still think to affirm that there are gays in such and such place is a kind of forcing people out. - Two situations might happen. One is the one that did happen: that faced with a hypocrital or false statement, we point out the contradiction. And that would never mean to disclose the identities of people who are hiding their homosexuality. Another situation arises when the person who discriminates is her/himself a homosexual. In that case, we have the right to dennounce her or him. This has not happened in Argentina yet, but it had happened in other parts of the world with artists, politicians, sports-people and respectable members of the community hiding their sexual preference and taking discriminatory stances. - Anyway, this ambiguous suggestion awakes certain morbosity in the people. And that made you said "I won't give any names" as soon as you picked the phone. - Nobody seems to undertand that gay people are everywhere. That is the reality: in the military, politics, art, in the Church. They might have to handle it with more or less hypocrisy, with more or less freedom, but we have been, we are and we will be everywhere. ABOUT LIFE AND DEATH (exerpts) by Daniel Lagares Daniel Passarella have indulged in discriminatory acts before, but this time he showed his most brutal side. The prohibition to wear earings and the requisite of having short hair were watched with sardonic smiles by the football community, because shaved and nit players do not ensure by themselves a superior performance. But he obtained consensus from a large part of society. It is that sector that is always ready to support the "stron hands" and looks somewhere else when Bussi wins elections [Bussi is an Army office, accussed of heavy human rights violations during the former dictatorship who has just been elected governor]. Now that Passarella stands naked, admitting he would never invite a homosexual to join his team, many people start changins robes. The football community keeps silent, hypocrital, but deep down agreeing with the Great Coacher and deep down knowing that there are homosexuals among them, that they are discriminated against and that many times their careers have been stopped and they have been forced to retire. Football is a 'machista' game and sex is a forbidden subject in football. Together with money, those are the most favorite subjects during concentrations. And concentrations are the meeting point of the football community, a small society after all. Carlos Jauregui refuted Passarella using the worst of all possible arguments, may be because he does not know the football community well enough. But as an activist, he should be aware that if he knows by sure that inside a closed community there is someone that can be discriminated against by his/her sexual condition, he would do no favor to the person by mentioning it and even worse, he would make the person an easy prey for inevitable revenge. Unwillingly, he might have created victims. Surely, there were other methods available. If tango is right and it is true that in every Buenos Aires' corner there is a futball coach, by now there must be millons of Argentinians trying to find out who among the 22 players that are currently in Uruguay [playing Copa America, a very important Latin American competition] is a homosexual. -- ales@wamani.apc.org < Fin - End >