RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - Botafogo, Flamengo, Fluminense and Vasco have joined the campaign #NúmeroDoRespeito (#NumberOfRespect), which aims to remove the homophobic and derogatory notion from number 24. Botafogo, Fluminense and Santos were the first to join, followed by Bahia, and Flamengo and Vasco this week also embraced the cause.
Brazil’s hugely popular (albeit illegal) Jogo do Bicho numbers game began as a ploy to attract visitors to the Rio zoo. There are 25 numbered zoo animals. Animal number 24 is “veado” or deer. For over a century, however, “veado” has become a homophobic epithet roughly equivalent to “faggot . . .
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