When Russian athletes Kseniya Ryzhova and Tatyana Firova stood on the podium at the World Athletics Championships in Moscow and kissed each other on the lips in celebration of their team having won the 4 x 400 m relay Aug. 17, the dissembling began at once. For opponents of Vladimir Putin’s crackdown on LGBT rights, it was the kiss heard around the world, an in-your-face repudiation of all that is wrong – dangerously wrong – with his anti-gay policies. For others, his supporters, it was a slap in the face of Russian values; a symbol of everything that is wrong in a godless world. For the two athletes, however, both of whom are married, it was nothing more than the very Russian act of two friends kissing on the lips.
But nuance in a world of insta-analysis is moribund. So when Brazilian footballer Emerson Sheik who plays for the Corinthians planted a kiss on his friend’s lips in celebration of a recent team victory, and posted the picture on Instagram, the reaction was just as swift, just as emotional and, in the hypermasculine world of Brazilian sports, just as violent. “One group of fans – the organization Camisa 12 – protested outside the Corinthians training ground, demanding both an apology and a retraction by the player. The group carried banners with the slogans “No fags allowed” and “This is a man’s place”.
But Sheik mostly took it in his stride. On that same Instagram post (translated from Portuguese), the footballer wrote: “You’ve got to be very brave to celebrate friendship and not be scared of what prejudiced people will say. You’ve got to be very free to celebrate a victory like this, openly, with a friend who is always there for you.”
For their part, the official Twitter account for Camisa 12 issued an apology of sorts: “We reject isolated attitudes that tarnish the image of Corinthians and its supporters. We demand respect for the Ultras! This is Corinthians!”
