Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe
and Baltimore Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo have filed a brief
in support of plaintiffs challenging the constitutionality of
Proposition 8, California's gay marriage ban.
The Supreme Court will hear oral
arguments in Hollingsworth v. Perry later this month and is
expected to hand down a ruling in June.
“Sports figures receive a celebrity
status that influences a large majority of the American population,”
the
brief states. “For far too long, professional sports have been
a bastion of bigotry, intolerance, and small-minded prejudice toward
sexual orientation, just as they had been to racial differences
decades earlier. That is finally changing, and changing
drastically.”
“This Court should correct
Proposition 8's action to remove marriage rights from same-sex
couples because, as the district court and the Ninth Circuit majority
so carefully explained, the advocates of Proposition 8 provided no
evidence-based rationale – as opposed to one based on fear and
prejudice – for treating LBGTQ citizens differently with respect to
marriage.”
Both players played critical roles in
the issue of marriage equality last fall.
Kluwe worked against passage of an
unsuccessful constitutional amendment which sought to limit marriage
to heterosexual couples in Minnesota. Ayanbadejo advocated for
passage of an initiative which upheld a marriage equality law
approved by Maryland lawmakers.
(Related: Gay
groups cheer as Obama urges Supreme Court to strike down Prop 8.)