Each week, Queerty picks one blowhard, hypocrite, airhead, sanctimonious prick or other enemy of all that is queer to be the Douche of the Week.
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A Maryland delegate is attacking a Baltimore Ravens linebacker for recording a video in support of marriage equality—and claiming he should be reprimanded for it.
In October 2011, the Ravens’ Brendon Ayanbadejo recorded a video for Marylanders for Marriage Equality, which worked to get same-sex marriage passed in the Old Line State. “I believe we should be doing everything we can to make Maryland families stronger, which is why I support marriage for gay and lesbian couples who want to make a lifetime commitment to each other,” the 36-year-old Chicago native says in the clip.
How about we take this to the next level?
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It’s not the first time Ayanbadejo (right, droool) advocated for marriage equality: In a 2009 Huffington Post opinion piece he eloquently wrote:
“Maybe I am a man ahead of my time. However, looking at the former restrictions on human rights in our country starting with slavery, women not being able to vote, blacks being counted as two thirds of a human, segregation, no gays in the military (to list a few) all have gone by the wayside.
But now here in 2009 same-sex marriages are prohibited. I think we will look back in 10, 20, 30 years and be amazed that gays and lesbians did not have the same rights as every one else. How did this ever happen in the land of the free and the home of the brave? Are we really free?”
With all that, it was when Ayanbadejo offered up two Ravens tickets for a marriage-equality fundraiser that Baltimore County Delegate Emmett C Burns Jr. got his panties in a bunch. Burns (below) wrote Ravens’ owner Steven Disciotti an official letter stating that Ayanbadejo should be “ordered to cease and desist” supporting gay marriage.
“I find it inconceivable that one of your players, Mr. Brendon Ayanbadejo, would publicly endorse same-sex marriage, specifically as a Raven Football player. Many of my constituents and your football
supporters are appalled and aghast that a member of the Ravens football team would step into this controversial divide and try to sway public opinion one way or the other.
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. I believe Mr. Ayanbadejo should concentrate on football and steer clear of dividing the fan base.
I am requesting that you take the necessary action, as a National Football League owner, to inhibit such expressions from your employees and that he be ordered to cease and desist such injurious actions. I know of no other NFL player who has done what Mr. Ayanbadejo is doing.
The NFL acknowledge receiving the letter but had no further comment.
Look, Mr. Burns (snicker), you’re free to disagree with Mr. Ayanbadejo’s opinion. You’re even free to try and pass legislation that will impinge the rights of LGBT people. But the last time we checked every American is free to express themselves. Had Ayanbadejo said he spoke for the entire Ravens organization, perhaps Disciotti would have been within his rights to censure him for misrepresenting himself. But this is a case of a professional athlete (gasp) actually acting like a role model!
Burns—who’s also (surprise!) an ordained minister—is really the one guilty of misrepresenting himself. By using official letterhead, he presented himself as a spokesman for the Baltimore County Legislature. At the very least he should be reprimanded by his peers.
All together now: What a douche!
Cam
“”“I find it inconceivable that one of your players, Mr. Brendon Ayanbadejo, would publicly endorse same-sex marriage, specifically as a Raven Football player. Many of my constituents and your football supporters are appalled and aghast that a member of the Ravens football team would step into this controversial divide and try to sway public opinion one way or the other.”
______________________________
Yes, how dare he try to sway public opinion on a subject …… that this other guy is trying to sway public opinion on.
It’s a sad time for bigots when they desperately have to try to prevent others from experiencing free speech because their position is invalid.
Just wondering if Mr. Burns would have been upset because Lyndon Johnson stepped into the “Controversial” issue of the civil rights legislation?
Neo
@Cam: Free speech only applies to bigots, don’t you dare call them on their idiocy. That violates the constitution*
* A version of the constitution that isn’t a real document and only exists in the minds of right wing religious and political extremists.
Bob LaBlah
What is sad here is how he and ALL of the other black reverends sat back and watched as the city and state cut the education budgets (along with the budgets of several other social services)to build the stadium for an organization (the Ravens)whose market value was in excess of half a billion dollars.
NOT ONE WORD OF OBJECTION CAME FROM THEIR MOUTHS WHEN IT WAS ALSO POINTED OUT THAT IF PEOPLE ON PUBLIC ASSISTANCE TOOK LESS THAN LIVING WAGE PAYING JOBS AT THE STADIUM THEY WOULD LOSE THEIR BENEFITS.
I have NEVER understood how could a race of people who were told by Mr. Whiteman that their religion (which was practiced for thousands of years before he showed up) was wrong and his was right could sit back and preach………hey, whats the use. What is obviously etched in stone speaks for itself, and also not in the benefit of the majority.
The Real Mike in Asheville
Geez Queerty, you couldn’t attach the pic of Ayanbadejo from the “NO H8” campaign?
He is a total babe! Check out his “NO H8” pic here:
http://www.competenetwork.com/blogs/930-ravens-brendon-ayanbadejo-and-noh8-equality
Cam
@Bob LaBlah:
I see NOM is still sending people around to try to attack minorities on gay blogs.
I guess they missed the news that the NAAC, Corretta Scott King, Mrs. Loving, and the President have all come out in favor of gay marriage.
Bob LaBlah
Please take a moment and POINT OUT what I said in my comment that supports your conclusion. I have not one clue as to who the hell NOM is and really don’t give a flying fuck.
And by the way, are you sure Coretta Scott King was still alive when gay marriage was being legalized or are you referring to the days when it was on the drawing board and out of respect for the gay community, (a community that DID support the Civil Rights Act) she gave her support despite what that ignoramus of a niece of her and Martin Luther, Rev. Bernice, goes around saying that contradicts nearly EVERYTHING her uncle stood for?
And while we are on the subject of MLK what about the near deafening silence of his son Dexter…………I’ll leave well enough alone. For now at least.
Think before you rant unless you are a clandestine supporter of ignorance in the black community and jump at ANYTHING said that goes against what the black charlatans of the community (the reverends) say in public to the flocks they (some, but not all for the most part) are still fleecing.
Be sure to pray for me in church Sunday and you sit there in silence when your good reverend does what you are falsely accusing me of.
Love you regardless of your opinion of me. Take care.
Cam
@Bob LaBlah: said…
”
Please take a moment and POINT OUT what I said in my comment that supports your conclusion. ”
Easy, you attacked “ALL” black reverands. Funny that plenty have not stood by and done nothing and plenty are in the NAACP which has come out in support of gay rights. AS to what Coretta Scott King said, here is a quite from her before her death.
“The widow of Martin Luther King Jr. called gay marriage a civil rights issue, denouncing a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban it.
Constitutional amendments should be used to expand freedom, not restrict it, Coretta Scott King said Tuesday.
“Gay and lesbian people have families, and their families should have legal protection,”
yaoming
@Bob LaBlah: Same-sex marriage has been legal in the U.S. since 2004; Coretta Scott King died in 2006.
Bob LaBlah
@Cam: Dear, I am going to declare victory FOR your weak argument and move on. Case closed. Discussion over.
Mjl-428
@Bob LaBlah: you guys REALLY need to stop lumping all blacks together.
Dakotahgeo
It would do Baltimore County Delegate Emmett C Burns Jr. to kindly f**K his christian views values and get a life! I am so sick of these right wing faux christians!
Bellerophon69
I think Chris Kluwe’s letter in response to this authoritarian A-hole hits the nail on the head.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-kluwe/an-open-letter-to-emmett-burns_b_1866216.html
KARUADAM
Ravens Linebacker, you can tell them all that Adam, send tha all suck eggs. Fucking bloody Christian, again and you have not seen the end of it till they all dead!!.
heydavis
Perhaps Mr. Burns, a faux-Christian only for political expediency, and obviously not practicing so much as The Golden Rule, might better spend his energies on the near-50% divorce rate among his chosen flock, and less on interfering with the lives of those who only want to stay committed to each other in a loving relationship. After fixing that, he might consider the insane number of unwed mothers (and fathers), particularly in certain groups, and the lack of any stable family structure. In brief: his priorities are screwed!
Amia
You know it’s kinda weird I actually meet him a few years ago and he seemed like a real nice man and then last year I read about him in a LGBT mag at school talking about how LGBT rights basically don’t matter , and now this …it’s really goes to show you that wolves really do wear sheeps clothing I guess.
Billysees
@heydavis: Re 14 “Perhaps….
Very well said.
Brilliantly written.
Send him a copy of this comment.
He needs to think about these things.