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Baltimore Ravens Linebacker Wants to ‘Harness’ Super Bowl Fame to Promote Gay Marriage

Jan. 25, 2013 2:35pm Billy Hallowell

Baltimore Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo is, once again, capturing headlines over his support for same-sex marriage. According to The New York Times, the player is hoping to use his team’s Super Bowl platform to make a statement in support of gay rights. Following Baltimore’s win against the New England Patriots on Sunday, he purportedly e-mailed gay rights activists to ask what he can do for marriage equality and the anti-bullying movement over the next few weeks.

According to the Times, Ayanbadejo e-mailed Brian Ellner, a gay marriage advocate he has worked with before and Michael Skolnik, hip hop mogul Russell Simmons’ political director, asking how he could be of service. The message, sent just before 4 a.m. ET Monday morning, asked, “Is there anything I can do for marriage equality or anti-bullying over the next couple of weeks to harness this Super Bowl media?”

Brendon Ayanbadejo Hopes to Use the Super Bowl to Help Advance Gay Marriage Message

Baltimore Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo watches the action on the field during the second half of an NFL football game against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Baltimore, Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012. Credit: AP

Following the e-mail, the football player told the Times that the message he sent was his “Jerry Maguire email,” driving home the notion that the attention he will have before and during the Super Bowl will be intense — and that it can be harnessed to tout pro-gay marriage sentiment. But this support for same-sex unions nothing new for Ayanbadejo, who has been speaking out for gay rights for quite some time.

The Times has more about his upbringing — one that has colored his current views:

Ayanbadejo’s support for gay rights reflects a childhood and youth during which he mingled with a diverse group of people, including many who were openly gay or lesbian. At one point, he told me, his stepfather was the resident director of an L.G.B.T. dorm at the University of California at Santa Cruz; the family, including Ayanbadejo, lived there.

“I was raised around gay people in a very liberal society,” he told me during an interview in September, when I first spoke with him. “Discrimination was never allowed.”

Ayanbadejo, who has been playing professional football for a decade, first publicly voiced his support for marriage equality several years ago, and says it was a much lonelier stand at the time. He drew insults. Derision.

St. Louis Rams running back Daryl Richardson, right, runs with the ball as Baltimore Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo defends during the second quarter of a preseason NFL football game Thursday, Aug. 30, 2012, in St. Louis. Credit: AP

The player is hoping for a Super Bowl win and a subsequent appearance on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” where the two can discuss the treatment of gays and lesbians.

“That’s my ultimate goal after the Super Bowl,” he told the Times. “To go on Ellen’s show, to be dancing with her, to bust a move with her.”

(H/T: Newsbusters.org)

–

Related:

NFL Player Matt Birk Pens Anti-Gay Marriage Article: Silencing Those Opposed to Same-Sex Marriage Is ‘Un-American’

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Comments (175)

savagenatn
Posted on January 26, 2013 at 5:24am
jackass if you want to be a pole smoker go right ahead, but none of us want to hear about that sick twisted disgusting garbage.

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bigone4u
Posted on January 26, 2013 at 3:42am
NFL = ***** Felon League. It will be a mark of progress for this country if the people ever give up professional sports and take back Sunday for family activities such as a ride in the country, croquet, a backyard picnic, etc. The feminists say men can’t be men. Well, we can’t unless we start to act like real men, shut off the TV on game day and do something manly. Professional sports and ASSletes are a deadly drug to decency and real manliness.

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TASS50
Posted on January 26, 2013 at 2:08am
You know this is getting old about all this equality over a behavior and mental illness. What’s so equal about a behavior and want special treatment for this behavior. And what does this have to do with football and the Super Bowl looks like I am with the 49ers.

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lessoneleg
Posted on January 26, 2013 at 12:06am
Until such time as a Man can pass a fully developed baby through his only exit canal, I think deviant still applies to Gay relationships. No matter what modern spin you wish to engrave on Marriage, it was already fixed to be between one man and one woman. It has always been discriminatory, an acceptable discriminatory practice to ensure only one thing, creation. Oh, you can have all that lovey dovey stuff, but marriage has one outcome, even for those people who couldn’t procreate. Those people set aside themselves in a statement saying that they would live up to conditions. It doesn’t say every couple marrying would be successful but it does say they are bonded. Two men cannot bond the same as a man and woman do. So get over it LGBT, you are and forever will be “deviant”.

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Kathleen3
Posted on January 25, 2013 at 11:14pm
Why do these egomaniacs think we are interested in their political agendas? Someone tell this guy to put his helmet back on his head and go to football practice.

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do_in_it_2
Posted on January 25, 2013 at 10:08pm
I was pulling for the Ravens but I just changed my mind. Go 49er’s!!

Push your political agenda somewhere else.

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The Big Mick
Posted on January 25, 2013 at 9:42pm
Wonder how this sits with Ray Lewis, who has been talking Scripture and Sounding like a Black Preacher. The Black Religious Community gives Homosex short shrift.
One does note Traditional Christians like Te’O and Tebow get savaged [don't expect any apologies from ESP'N' or even Fox for casting aspersions on Te'Os Veracity, Character, Integrity and Sexuality now that the Truth about the pha goe who STALKED him is coming out].
One does wonder if it was Gauche for Tebow to speak up for Pre-Natal Life, why it is Righteous for BAyz here to front for Da Pervs.
In any case I hope the Niners crush em.

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jteagle
Posted on January 25, 2013 at 8:11pm
Bet money none of you tough guys would dare say this stuff to his face. He could force any of you big manly bigots to marry him and the toughest thing you could say is “I do.”

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- The Big Mick
  Posted on January 25, 2013 at 9:47pm
  You’d lose.
  I will say to anyone’s face the SAME TRUTH I would say anywhere else.
  And he cannot FORCE me, in this Free Republic, to do anything I don’t want to do.
  And I would joyfully say to Mr. B Ayjo that God regards Homosex as a kind of Debauched, Debased, and Degenerate Idolatry.
  But then one cannot expect Cogency from anyone attempting to make a Prima Facie Case for ingesting one’s own elimination off another male’s member d’la creme as the Height of Romantic Love.
  
  Report this comment
gac1218
Posted on January 25, 2013 at 7:18pm
You know Brendon I’m a Ravens fan and I am deeply disturbed that you would pollute the Ravens with your activist aggenda. The Ravens pay you to play football so do that. You make me sick and I hope you get cut from the team and take your curses with you. I would hope the strong christians on the Ravens would pray and speak against this blot of a man so no filhty perversion or judgement would stick to us.
I’m so sick and tired of people jambing homosexuality down my throat and expecting me to be tolerant. What a wicked, perverted, deranged people we are becoming.
Please come Lord Jesus!

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RIGS
Posted on January 25, 2013 at 7:01pm
You can marry ray lewis then you can sue him for spousel abuse…………………

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MCLOVINIT
Posted on January 25, 2013 at 6:53pm
Who cares?

On another note, the Ravens are going to win because they’re the only team with a white quarterback.

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marshan3q
Posted on January 25, 2013 at 6:41pm
and…. there goes all my support for Baltimore…. go 49ers

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dumpsterdog
Posted on January 25, 2013 at 6:28pm
Why? How disgusting is he……

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- Git-R-Done
  Posted on January 26, 2013 at 1:06am
  Extremely. The homosexual activists tend to be very creepy people.
  
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ExtremeRight
Posted on January 25, 2013 at 5:43pm
Is that the name of his boyfriend tattooed on his arm ? Just wondering and don’t try telling that boy does not look like a homosexual. It’s all over his face.. If you want to know what a homosexuals face looks like. It is a look that tells you he rather be smoking a pipe right now.. Now I could elaborate but I’m hoping this stays up already.. “The sensors”

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- savagenatn
  Posted on January 26, 2013 at 5:27am
  that’s funny…smoking a pipe. HA. I’m very surprised the PC sensors haven’t deleted your post also. They love deleting my stuff.
  And yes I agree he has gay written all over his face and that probably is his boyfriend’s name on the tat
  
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howiekwix1
Posted on January 25, 2013 at 5:38pm
He will inevitably come out of the closet, maybe on Ellens show!! I do not understand the need to nationalize sexual preferance.

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gosutag
Posted on January 25, 2013 at 5:14pm
To all those who are ignorant, gays don’t have an agenda. Gay people are being used, just like Muslims are being used and any other group of people. Mind you, the same thing has been happening to those who aren’t white. Use the minority, win the majority. If you people are hating the gays and not the people that are using them then you have a sick mind.

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- The Big Mick
  Posted on January 25, 2013 at 9:55pm
  No, I am despising the people who are ALLOWING themselves to BE used.
  Because those people are ALLOWING it out of THEIR HATRED for ME and MINE, a Hatred I joyfully return WITH INTEREST because they are ALLOWING their Bigotry to BE used to Threaten MY Sacred Liberty and Prosperity.
  Naw, I hate ‘Q’s because they are not content to ignore me and do what they please in the privacy of their own sheets, where I have no Constitutional Warrant or Wish to go. What THEY REALLY WANT though is to use the Imprimature of The STATE to SILENCE me when I say to them, “God regards Homosex as Debauched, Debased, and Depraved Idolatry.
  Similarly with the Ragamuzzied JihadiNazi Sandyknickers. I hate them for being Dark Age Barbarian Patriarchal KLANbangers bent of World Wide Islamicist Hegemony.
  MY Sacred Liberties will not be secure until the Koran is read only in He ll.
  
  Report this comment
Southernsoul
Posted on January 25, 2013 at 5:13pm
No Bucs, No Pack, not even any Falcons. Yet another reason not to watch the Bowl this year either.

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theBru
Posted on January 25, 2013 at 5:10pm
Maybe he is just trying to get some of SF’s fans to pull for the Ravens…since that is the Mecca of gay folks…

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- barryswhitehalf
  Posted on January 26, 2013 at 11:31pm
  The Niners have had a long and storied football tradition long before the city became a gay wasteland and liberal cesspool. Just because a group of players play there does not mean they accept everything that goes on there.
  
  Report this comment
SquidVetOhio
Posted on January 25, 2013 at 4:41pm
The real question:

When is Joe Flacco going to come out of the closet?

As a Browns fan, I’m enjoying every second of this.

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- gac1218
  Posted on January 25, 2013 at 7:20pm
  That makes sense. Browns fan loving homosexual talk.
  
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easye2984
Posted on January 25, 2013 at 4:33pm
His statement implies that people who aren’t raised around gays OR in a very liberal environment are some how discriminatory. Sounds like an intolerant ye-hoo to me.

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meltzen
Posted on January 25, 2013 at 4:20pm
What he actually is doing promoting a lifestyle that has a short life span. On average heterosexuals live 15-20 years longer than a homosexual life style.

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- catty
  Posted on January 25, 2013 at 9:04pm
  I am sure you can provide a link for that…
  
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- The Big Mick
  Posted on January 25, 2013 at 9:58pm
  To KittyLitter.
  It’s Intuitive, isn’t it? Eatin all that sheite can’t be HEALTHY.
  
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todd147
Posted on January 25, 2013 at 4:02pm
Put 1,000 gays on an island and 1,000 straight people on an island and come back in a hundred years to see which one survived the best.

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denkat56
Posted on January 25, 2013 at 4:01pm
I’m happy that your a liberal and have tolerance for other lifestyles, now shut the hell up and do what you’re paid to do, play football. Oh by the way we really don’t care.

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osamanobama
Posted on January 25, 2013 at 3:53pm
something tells me this guy doesn’t support polygamist or incest mariages.
hypocrite.

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- Git-R-Done
  Posted on January 26, 2013 at 1:05am
  That’s the typical case for the so-called marriage equality people.
  
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TheGrtDcptn
Posted on January 25, 2013 at 3:32pm
…who cares what HE wants…he is irrelevant…

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- ZX12R
  Posted on January 25, 2013 at 3:40pm
  I don’t care about him either. I care about always having this issue in my damn face. He is saying, hey, during the superbowl would be a great time to shove it in everyone’s face. Bastard. Hope he gets injured.
  
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