I don’t know how we missed this one, but thanks to Ted Rybka at GLAAD for pointing it out, via the Baltimore Sun! This past April, Baltimore Ravens linebacker Brendan Ayanbadejo (he of the nipple ring) wrote an op-ed piece at the Huffington Post in support of same-sex marriage:
If Britney Spears can party it up in Vegas with one of her boys and go get married on a whim and annul her marriage the next day, why can’t a loving same sex couple tie the knot? How could our society grant more rights to a heterosexual one night stand wedding in Vegas than a gay couple that has been together for 3, 5, 10 years of true love? The divorce rate in America is currently 50%. I am willing to bet that same sex marriages have a higher success rate than heterosexual marriages.
Ayanbadejo does get one fact wrong. He says Presidential candidate Obama didn’t take sides on gay marriage: He did and was firmly against it. Still, to see an elite American athlete take this kind of stand will lead me to cheer for the Ravens this season!
on Sep 2nd, 2009 at 11:44 AM
I wish more people thought like him! Well said! And since my St. Louis Rams are pretty terrible, I can probably cheer for Baltimore once or twice haha
on Sep 2nd, 2009 at 1:08 PM
I hate the team, but love the player. It’s nice when people actually use logic to talk about politics.
on Sep 2nd, 2009 at 2:59 PM
Very cool, I applaud him. If men like him were the rule, rather than the exception, this country would be far better off. His reasoning is logical in any case, and he is a much better role model for young boys coming up than most pro athletes are.
on Sep 2nd, 2009 at 4:19 PM
Wow. Nicely stated, Brendan.
on Sep 2nd, 2009 at 7:24 PM
I agree Steve…… wonderfully put!
on Sep 2nd, 2009 at 9:05 PM
[...] is the original: Ravens linebacker supports gay marriage – Outsports AKPC_IDS += “1546,”;Popularity: unranked [...]
on Sep 2nd, 2009 at 10:57 PM
I am very mixed on this :
It is absolutely wonderful that he said what he said , but it is very sad that such a simple commonsense approach is newsworthy .
Wouldnt it be great if one day the natural response to such a statement was ” Well ,Doh! Of course !”
Hopefully if enough sportspeople eventually have the moral courage to follow his example and speak up for what is right eventually such statements will just be taken for granted .
In the meantime a sincere thanks to Mr Ayanbadejo – I hope this one pebble falling eventually triggers an avalanche .
on Sep 3rd, 2009 at 6:07 AM
I live in Baltimore and the Ravens are my favorite team of course so I’m glad to read this.
Brendan is very popular but there was some talk that he might get cut in order to keep someone who plays a little better at linebacker.
on Sep 3rd, 2009 at 5:51 PM
And he’s hot too!
on Sep 23rd, 2009 at 3:43 PM
What a nice thing to hear & from a professional athlete. You can bet when you play the Bucs (I’m a Tampa Bay fan) I will still cheer for you cause you cheered for us!!!