Cleveland Browns linebacker Scott
Fujita says his support for gay marriage is rooted in a “Christian
message of love.”
The 33-year-old father of three wrote
in an op-ed published Saturday in The
New York Times that he's not prepared to answer one question
from his curious daughters: “Why aren't Clare and Lesa married?”
“I don't know how to explain to them
what 'inferior' means or why their country treats our friends as
such,” Fujita wrote. “I don't want to tell them that 'Yes, our
friends love each other just like Mommy and Daddy love each other,
but that their love is considered 'less than.'”
“I support marriage equality for so
many reasons: my father's experience in an internment camp and the
racial intolerance his family experienced during and after the war,
the gay friends I have who are really not all that different from me,
and also because of a story I read a few years back about a woman who
was denied the right to visit her partner of 15 years when she was
stuck in a hospital bed.”
“My belief is rooted in a childhood
nurtured by a Christian message of love, compassion and acceptance.
It's grounded in the fact that I was adopted and know there are
thousands of children institutionalized in various foster programs,
in desperate need of permanent, safe and loving homes, but living in
states that refuse to allow unmarried couples, including gays and
lesbians, to adopt because they consider them not fit to be parents.”
“In articulating all my feelings
about marriage equality, I almost don't know where to begin. And
perhaps that's part of the problem. Why do we have to explain
ourselves when it comes to issues of fairness and equality? Why is
common sense not enough?”
(Related: Scott
Fujita urges Americans to support gay marriage.)