MuscleHunk in NFL Told: Shut Up on Gay Rights!

[Lucky]

Brendon Ayanbadejo, a linebacker for the NFL Baltimore Ravens, has been told to shut up on gay rights. But indirectly. A Maryland House of Delegates member, Emmett C. Burns, Jr., has asked the owner of the team to shut his player up.

Brendon Ayanbadejo has been active in the NoH8 movement, and now says: "I have to thank him more than anything for bringing national attention to the issue," USA Today reports.

I don't know if Ayanbadejo is gay, but he sure would be welcome:

Read more: http://www.towleroad.../#ixzz25oLlmA4o

[Guest zipperzone]

Brendon Ayanbadejo, a linebacker for the NFL Baltimore Ravens, has been told to shut up on gay rights. But indirectly. A Maryland House of Delegates member, Emmett C. Burns, Jr., has asked the owner of the team to shut his player up.

Brendon Ayanbadejo has been active in the NoH8 movement, and now says: "I have to thank him more than anything for bringing national attention to the issue," USA Today reports.

I don't know if Ayanbadejo is gay, but he sure would be welcome:

Read more: http://www.towleroad.../#ixzz25oLlmA4o

What an asshole this Burns must be to be stupid enough to try and shut him up. I guess Free Speech 101 was not in his curriculum.

[Guest EXPAT]

Huffington Post Editor's note: Baltimore Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo has

voiced his support for a Maryland ballot initiative that would legalize same-sex marriage in the state. In response, Maryland state delegate Emmett C. Burns, Jr. (D-Baltimore) wrote a letter to Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti urging him to "inhibit such expressions from your employee." In the open letter below, Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe responds to Burns.

Dear Emmett C. Burns, Jr.,

I find it inconceivable that you are an elected official of the United States government. Your

vitriolic hatred and bigotry make me ashamed and disgusted to think that you are in any way responsible for shaping policy at any level. The views you espouse neglect to consider several fundamental key points, which I will outline in great detail:

1. As I suspect you have not read the Constitution, I would like to remind you that the very first amendment in this founding document deals with the freedom of speech, particularly the abridgment of said freedom. By using your position as an elected official (when referring to your constituents in order to implicitly threaten the Ravens organization) to

argue that the Ravens should silence Brendon Ayanbadejo from voicing his support for same-sex marriage, not only are you clearly violating the First Amendment, but you come across as a narcissistic fromunda stain. What on Earth would possess you to say something so mind-boggingly stupid? It baffles me that a man such as yourself, a man who relies on that same First Amendment to pursue your own religious studies without fear of persecution from the state, could somehow justify stifling another person's right to free speech. To call that "hypocritical" would be to do a disservice to the word. "Mindfuckingly, obscenely hypocritical" starts to approach it a little bit.

2. You

wrote, "Many of your fans are opposed to such a view and feel it has no place in a sport that is strictly for pride, entertainment and excitement." Holy fucking shitballs. Did you seriously just say that, as someone who is, according to your Wikipedia page, "deeply involved in government task forces on the legacy of slavery in Maryland"? Have you not heard of Kenny Washington? Jackie Robinson? As recently as 1962 the NFL still had segregation, which was only done away with by brave athletes and coaches daring to speak their mind and do the right thing, and you're going to say that political views have "no place in a sport"? I can't even begin to fathom the cognitive dissonance that must be coursing through your rapidly addled mind right now; the mental gymnastics your brain has to tortuously contort itself through to make such a preposterous statement are surely worthy of an Olympic gold medal (the Russian judge gives you a 10 for "beautiful oppressionism").

3. This is more a personal quibble of mine, but why do you hate freedom? Why do you hate the fact that other people want a chance to live their lives and be happy, even though they may believe in something different from what you believe, or act differently from you? How does gay marriage affect your life in any way, shape, or form? Are you worried that if gay marriage became legal, all of a sudden you'd start thinking about penis? ("Oh shit. Gay marriage just passed. Gotta get me some of that hot dong action!") Will all your friends suddenly turn gay and refuse to come to your Sunday Ticket grill-outs? (Unlikely. Gay people enjoy watching football, too.)

I can assure you that gay people getting married will have zero effect on your life. They won't come into your house and steal your children. They won't magically turn you into a lustful cockmonster. They won't even overthrow the government in an orgy of hedonistic debauchery because all of a sudden they have the same legal rights as the other 90 percent of our population, rights like Social Security benefits, childcare tax credits, family and medical leave to take care of loved ones, and COBRA health care for spouses and children. You know what having these rights will make gay Americans? Full-fledged citizens, just like everyone else, with the freedom to pursue happiness and all that that entails. Do the civil-rights struggles of the past 200 years mean absolutely nothing to you?

In closing, I would like to say that I hope this letter in some small way causes you to reflect upon the magnitude of the colossal foot-in-mouth clusterfuck you so brazenly unleashed on a man whose only crime was speaking out for something he believed in. Best of luck in the next election; I'm fairly certain you might need it.

Sincerely,

Chris Kluwe

P.S. I've also been vocal as hell about the issue of gay marriage, so you can take your "I know of no other NFL player who has done what Mr. Ayanbadejo is doing" and shove it in your closed-minded, totally-lacking-in-empathy pie hole.

[lookin]

NFL Players Association president Domonique Foxworth also supported Ayanbedejo and piled on Burns.

“I don’t know if I can come up with a strong enough word, but his request was asinine,” Foxworth said

[Guest quietman]

Wow...letter from Chris Kluwe as one of the most articulate I've read in a long time. He deserves an "atta-boy"!

[TotallyOz]

Fantastic letter. I loved every word. Thank you for sharing!

[Lucky]

I had to Google fromunda. Never heard of it before, nor had the stain.

And, not to be too picky, the First Amendment- yes, it is usually capitalized, probably not necessarily, but anyway, it is to the founding document, not in. So we are speaking of an amendment to the founding document, not an amendment in it. The founding document itself said nothing about free speech. And even the First Amendment only restricted Congress from abridging free speech in laws it wrote. It took the Supreme Court to make it apply broadly.

So, even if Mr. Burns had read the Constitution and its Amendments, he might not know that the amendment applied beyond Congress.

[Guest zipperzone]

So, even if Mr. Burns had read the Constitution and its Amendments, he might not know that the amendment applied beyond Congress.

That's not the only thing Burns doesn't have a clue about.......

[Guest FourAces]

Both players and the guy in the NFL office are very brave to speak out. They are all associated with a sport that lends itself at times to being hurtful to gays. An example was when Jeff Garcia was the QB of the 49ers several players publicaly cried that he was gay and it made them uncomfortable ... Garcia has never said he was gay or demonstrated any reason to believe he is. So bravo to those guys that do speak out in support of gay rights.

[Guest EXPAT]

Much has been made of the epic letter than Minnesota Vikings Chris Kluwe penned about marriage equality. Part of what made it so powerful was the, um, colorful language he used to pull no punches. But he says that many people, including his father, felt it would have been moreeffective toned down a bit, so Luwe put out an edited version, substituting (in all caps) some family friendly phrases for things like "holy f*cking sh*tballs" which he replaced with "DISAPPOINTED LEMUR FACE WITH SOLITARY TEAR TRICKLING DOWN TO CHIN." Honestly, I'm not sure which amuses me more.

[Guest EXPAT]

Chris Kluwe has announced he will no longer blog for the St. Paul Pioneer Press after the newspaper released an editorial that claimied to be neutral on the issue of the marriage amendment in that state, but was obviously worded to support the amendment banning marriage equality. Kluwe said the editorial attempted “to confuse people through obfuscation and selected presentation of arguments.” As for the paper, they're not happy about losing Kluwe, noting “[Kluwe’s] ’Out of Bounds’ blog has occasionally brought six-figure page views.”