 Getty Images Sport/Jonathan Daniel Chris Kluwe, left and Brendon Ayanbadejo, right |
That hasn't stopped two straight players from becoming gay rights activists and even asking the nation's highest court to reject California's ban on same-sex marriage.
Last week the players filed an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to reject Proposition 8, a voter-approved ban on
The case has drawn a long and varied list of gay marriage supporters, from prominent Republicans to the libertarian Cato Institute to the Obama administration.
However, the amicus brief filed on behalf of Minnesota Vikings player Chris Kluwe and the Baltimore Ravens' Brendon Ayanbadejo has enormous symbolic importance — especially given how much influence pro
Pop stars like Cyndi Lauper and Lady Gaga have long championed gay rights, but Kluwe and Ayanbadejo's activism is pretty unusual among pro football players.
You just don't see a lot of straight football players speaking out for gay rights.
GQ dubbed the pair "honorary gays of the year" in December. Ayanbadejo made headlines when he donated a pair of tickets to a gay marriage fundraiser and got blasted by Maryland politician an Emmett Burns, the GQ profile noted.
His fellow NFLer Kluwe then came to his rescue, writing a hilarious letter to Burns that was published in Deadspin. Here's the best part:
"I can assure you that gay people getting married will have zero effect on your life. They won't come into your house and steal your children. They won't magically turn you into a lustful cockmonster. They won't even overthrow the government in an orgy of hedonistic debauchery because all of a sudden they have the same legal rights as the other 90 percent of our population—rights like Social Security benefits, child care tax credits, Family and Medical Leave to take care of loved ones, and COBRA healthcare for spouses and children."
Kluwe's passion for gay rights can be traced to his childhood in Los Alamitos, Calif., according to a New York Times profile of him.
His parents were intellectuals who taught Kluwe to think for himself and defend his opinions vigorously. He was a violin prodigy with a large vocabulary for his age, according to the Times.
Kluwe was also taught to treat everybody the same way regardless of their sexual orientation.
For his part, Ayanbadejo is the child of a biracial couple who wouldn't have been able to get married in many U.S. states before 1967.
Ayanbadejo told the Huffington Post's Michelangelo Signorile that he experienced discrimination at an early age, and that made him who he is today.
"Whether it was women’s rights or interracial marriage or civil rights, whatever it was, it’s all led to where we are today,” Ayanbadejo said. “And now it’s gay rights. And it’s all the same issue even though they’re all different things. They’re all predicated on equality and treating people fairly."