Minnesota Vikings punter Christopher
James “Chris” Kluwe has recorded three ads opposing Minnesota's
proposed gay marriage ban.
“In November, I will make my wife,
children and friends extremely proud by speaking out for the marriage
discrimination amendment,” Kluwe, 30, said in one of the 30-second ads
released by Minnesotans
for Equality, a group working to defeat the amendment.
“This change to our constitution
teaches our children that the love between certain groups of people
is less worthy of recognition than the rest. Our children need our
loving guidance. Together we can show them that our state stands up
for equality for all loving and committed relationships.” (The
video is embedded in the right panel of this page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)
In an interview with gay sports blog
Outsports,
Kluwe said his brother-in-law and his partner who live in California
“would love to get married but they can't.”
“I've always believed that people are
inherently the same and should have the same rights and equal
protections under the law,” he said. “It really doesn't matter
what you do with who or whom as long as you're not infringing on
someone else's rights. Everyone should be free to live their own
life however it makes them happy.”
“I don't think a lot of people
realize that family is family,” he added. “If you find out your
kid is gay, are you going to love him any less? Because if you do,
then you're probably not doing parenting for the right reasons.”