Monike Fernandes Abreu, aka Mona, has already entered the court feeling bad. In her words, she was “ready to go.” She felt scared, desperate, tired of everything, suicidal. She sat beside the bench in the midst of a panic attack. She only heard the trainer scream.
“Afraid of what?”
It was the key. She’d been there for over a year now and shouldn’t be afraid anymore. At least there, among the friends and companions of the Bharbixas, a handball team in Belo Horizonte, there was no reason for that.
Jads Antunes looked for a long time for a team to play handball in São Paulo. A place that accepted her way of being, her sexual orientation. He was one of the founders of the Fairies, which hosted, last weekend, the Queer Cup, a tournament aimed at collectives from the LGBTQIA+ community.
“The Fairies saved my life. When I entered a mental and psychological hole, I was welcomed, they were by my side regardless of any decision I made. It was the moment when I had a click, a snap, to realize that I am loved and I don’t need anyone’s approval. That’s when I managed to understand that I didn’t need to be ashamed of myself”, says Antunes.
In the five-team tournament, the Fairies were champions by defeating the Bharbixas in the final by 28 to 25, in a competition approved by the Brazilian Handball Confederation.
That wasn’t the most important thing. In the days following the event, the Queer Cup organizers received several messages from athletes from other teams who were at the tournament. They were grateful for the welcome, the atmosphere of fraternization and repeated an expression common to those who participate in collectives such as the Fairies: they felt embraced.
“It’s a matter of acceptance for those who have been looking for it all their lives”, recalls Bruno Costa, who has always played handball in São José dos Campos (90 km from São Paulo), where he lives, and in neighboring cities.
After being interviewed about his participation in the Fairies in December of last year, for a report published by Sheethe began receiving anonymous phone threats.
“Some people congratulated me. But there was a call from an unknown number. I answered. It was a person saying that the article was shit, that I had spit on the plate I ate and that I had to be smart with what I was saying around. other calls from unidentified numbers, but I didn’t answer”, he explains.
Bruno had given up the sport after an injury to his right shoulder. He was reunited with handball thanks to the Fairies. He now has an invitation to play for a professional team from JacareÃ, in partnership with Taubaté, for the Paulista Championship.
Teams from different sports targeting the LGBTQIA+ community are on the rise. There are also experiences in football, volleyball, rugby and dance. The Queer Cup is the most successful project because it has been around since 2018. It is the same year that the lawyer Rogério Dervanosk moved from Porto Alegre to São Paulo and started posting “flyers” on social networks looking for people to set up a handball team. The first to answer the call was Jads Antunes. Fairies were born.
Training takes place once a week on rented courts in the Vila Mariana region, south of São Paulo.
It’s a story similar to that of other collectives in the sport that have become a reference, such as Pampa Cats, from Rio Grande do Sul, and Bharbixas.
“The intention is always to aggregate. To aggregate a group of people who are constantly experiencing disapproval, exclusion, separation. things. The connection in sport becomes a connection in life”, says Mona. “The Bharbixas appeared to me at a time when I was in very bad shape. It was what kept me out of the house.”
It is even valid for those who are professionals in the sport, but who found in the collective a different place from what they were used to, a more welcoming environment. And it helped her to move forward when that seemed unlikely.
Camila Ricardo played in Guarulhos in 2017 and suffered a knee ligament injury. He became disillusioned with handball and the following year he thought about quitting. She was invited to train for a month with the Fairies just to pass the time. She never stopped and is still the coach, even though she is an athlete for SER Unimed Sorocaba in the state and in the next national league.
“In the first week I was already completely in love. It’s one of my greatest joys to be with them every Wednesday [quando acontecem os treinos]. They rekindled my love for handball,” she confesses.
The plan now, according to Antunes, is to expand. Spread the word, increase publicity so that more teams appear and other tournaments can take place.
“It’s a social movement. More than a sport. People who get together to build something bigger”, analyzes Mona.
It can also be a teaching for those arriving from outside.
“It’s a lesson of unity, of acceptance regardless of your history and where you come from. I learned a lot from them. I have that very strong in me because of the way I was received. no matter what happens to me”, concludes Camila, the technician.
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