NFL gay marriage supporters, Chris Kluwe and Brendon Ayanbadejo, have collaborated on a brief in support of gays having the right to marry. They filed the brief on the day of the deadline for the Supreme Court case of Hollingsworth v. Perry, which challenges Proposition 8, according to the San Francisco Chronicle on Saturday, March 2, 2013.
Kluwe, who is a punter with the Minnesota Vikings, and Baltimore Ravens' linebacker, Ayanbadejo, filed an amicus brief supporting same-sex marriage in California, after speaking out for this right in the past.
The pro-football players stressed how athletes have a good deal of influence today and that can be for better or worse. They wanted to use their influence for the better by supporting the right for gays to marry.
Ayanbadejo’s comes from a family where his mom is white and his father is black. He equates the laws of yesteryear that would have prevented his parent’s marriage to what he is seeing today with gays being denied the right to marry.
Intolerance within the NFL is something both these pro-football players have spoken out about in the past when player’s have occasionally made homophobic remarks, according to ESPN. Just recently he did this when Chris Culliver, a safety for the 49ers, made a comment during the Super Bowl. Kluwe previously wrote a letter that was full of sincere passion for this cause in response to an elected official who had opposed Ayanbadejo’s support for gay marriage.
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