Thirty professional athletes have signed on to a brief in support of plaintiffs challenging Prop 8, California's gay marriage ban.

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Hollingsworth v. Perry next week 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.”

Organizing the amicus brief were Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe and Baltimore Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo, both of whom have previously spoken out in favor of marriage equality.

Openly gay former professional athletes Robbie Rogers, Esera Tuaolo, Wade Davis, Jr. and David Kopay joined the brief, as well as Minnesota Lynx guard Seimone Augustus, who came out gay in 2011.

Rick Welts, who resigned as CEO of the Phoenix Suns roughly four months after announcing he's gay, and Dominique Foxworth, president of the NFL Players Association, also signed the brief.

Initial signers include: Scott Fujita, Marie Tillman, Russell Simmons, Cheryl Reeve, Pokey Chatman, Demaurice Smith, Patrick Nero, Kenneth Faried, Rashad Evans, Hudson Taylor, Adam Podlesh, Eric Barton, Chris Gocong, Alex Mack, Steve Gleason, Connor Barwin, Kawika Mitchell, D'Qwell Jackson, Eric Winston, Scott Shanle, Sean Avery, Joe Briggs, Michelle Marciniak, Susan Walvius, Beth Brooke, James Cantelupe, April Ross, Jennifer Kessy, Rebekkah Brunson, Kia Vaughn, Katura Horton-Perinchief, Jayne Appel, Tabi Bonney (Tabiabué Bonney).