Brendon Ayanbadejo, Super Bowl Bound Baltimore Ravens Line Backer Raises Awareness for Gay Rights
On Sunday night when Brendon Ayanbadejo and his team, the Baltimore Ravens beat the New England Patriots going on to become the 2013 AFC champs, he wanted to make a meaningful impact with his newfound celebrity. Hours after walking off the field, at 4 A.M. Monday EST, the line-backer shot off an email he anticipated would bring attention to a cause close to his heart -- gay rights.
His message to gay rights activists Brian Ellner and Michael Skolnik simply stated, “Is there anything I can do for marriage equality or anti-bullying over the next couple of weeks to harness this Super Bowl media?"
New York Times writer Frank Bruni got wind of the football star’s endeavor and gave him a call.
“On the phone Tuesday afternoon, Ayanbadejo called that missive his “Jerry Maguire email,” referring to the Tom Cruise movie, in which the plot is set in motion when Maguire, played by Cruise, seizes the occasion of a sleepless night to pour his heart and soul into a mission statement,” Bruni wrote.
With that the wheels began to turn. On Wednesday, Ellen DeGeneres tweeted Ayanbadejo an invitation to her television show: “Hey Brendon, I want you here and I want you here now.” To which he replied, “Since you twisted my arm, surely.”
As a brawny football player, Ayanbadejo knew being vocal about marriage equality and gay rights might be perceived in strange light, but he did it because he grew up in an open environment.
“I was raised around gay people in a very liberal society,” Ayanbadejo told Bruni in a previous interview.
Ayanbadejo has many friends that are gay and lesbian and his step father was the resident director of an LGBT dormitory at the University of California in Santa Cruz.
In 2009, Ayanbadejo wrote an editorial for the Huffington Post entitled, “Same Sex Marriages: What’s the Big Deal?”
“If Britney Spears can party it up in Vegas with one of her boys and go get married on a whim and annul her marriage the next day, why can’t a loving same sex couple tie the knot?”, he asked.
“I am willing to bet that same sex marriages have a higher success rate than heterosexual marriages,” he said.
