Ally In The NFL

This last week in the world of LGBT News the name Brendon Ayanbadejo has been quite prominent. Now, if you are like me and not a fan of football, you haven't heard this name before and aren't familiar with this person. Brendon Ayanbadejo is a linebacker for, recent Super Bowl winners, the Baltimore Ravens. He is also a very big advocate for LGBT Rights and Marriage Equality.

Unfortunately, pro-athletes, in sports like football, in the past have been generalized as being against LGBT rights and gay players. However, thanks to players like Brendon Ayanbadejo that stereotype is starting to change for the better.

Born and raised in Santa Cruz, California (about 1 1/2 hours south of San Fransisco), Brendon has been an advocate for marriage equality since 2009. His support became more publicly known earlier this year when Maryland, the state he plays football for, put same-sex marriage on their voting ballot. He has also credited his marriage equality support as one of his biggest accomplishments. In the weeks preceding the Super Bowl, Brendon took part in a photo shoot for the NO-H8 Organization to show his support for the LGBT community.

 

 

However, thanks to his team's recent Super Bowl win, his platform has garnered more media attention then ever.  On February 5, 2013, a video was uploaded onto CNN.com of an interview with Brendon Ayanbadejo on his support of the LGBT community and marriage equality. This video is only a little over 7 minutes, but it is one of the most powerful things I've seen in awhile. 

The first thing he says is, “Well I don't really call it Gay Rights, I just call it Rights. Everyone deserves to be treated equally.” I love this quote because it is very true. It should just be rights as everyone is the same regardless of who they love or are as a person. That right there made me a Brendon Ayanbadejo fan immediately. He goes on to make a very good point.“Everyone's been talking to gay people our entire lives, whether we know it or not.”  This is something I don't think a lot of people realize or think about. You can't just look at a person and know that they are gay, straight, bi, etc.  As Brendon also mentions, it shouldn't matter if a person wears clothing of another gender, or they feel inside they are one gender but physically another. People are just people.

When the Raven's Super Bowl win against the 49ers was mentioned, Ayanbadejo said something I found surprising and extremely refreshing. “And you ask why did the Ravens win the Super Bowl this year? Because we loved each other more then the 49er's loved the man next to them. So I love the man next to me. My teammates love me. The coaches loved us, and we won this football game because of love. We didn't win because we are tougher or more macho or anything like that. We won because we loved each other more, and we're gonna do anything for the man next to us.”  This is the first time I've ever heard of a team basing their win on the love between the team and not their physical strength or hard work. 

Brendon Ayanbadejo was also asked about his opinion of the possibility of having gay players on the Ravens and other NFL teams as well as his reaction to the anti-gay comments made earlier this month by Chris Culliver (San Fransisco 49ers). He responded with, “Everybody's the same. We're all equal. It doesn't matter. if you put your minds together, no matter what that person's background is or their orientation is that we can make change and do positive things.” 

The last quote I wanted to share from this interview was something Brendon said near the end. He mentioned the US Constitution and how it ties in with LGBT Rights. “Someone's rights are not your opinion. Someone's rights are granted through the constitution.”  This is a lesson that needs to be shared and taught.

Other people he mentions that are also LGBT Allies in the NFL world include Chris Kluwe (Minnesota Vikings), Scott Fujita (Cleveland Browns), and Connor Barwin (Houston Texans). He also mentions a group called Athlete Ally, which is an organization dedicated to supporting athletes of all orientations. 

http://www.athleteally.com/

If you can spare a few minutes out of your day, I strongly suggest clicking the link below and watching the whole interview. Brendon Ayanbadejo makes so many good, strong points that it's impossible to include them all in this post.

http://cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/bestoftv/2013/02/05/exp-brendon-ayanbadejo-talks-nfl-gay-rights.cnn.html

 “People are born gay so why treat them any differently? It's time we treat everybody fairly. And not only are we trying to dictate who people should love, but dictate who people should be. If a woman wants to wear man's clothes, if a man wants to wear woman's clothes or if you feel like you are really a woman on the inside and you're really a man, who cares? Let's just treat everybody equally. Let's move on. Let's evolve as a culture, as a people.”   

- Brendon Ayabadejo