Ravens' Brendon Ayanbadejo Supports Same-Sex Marriage

Apparently, not all NFL players are juiced-up Neanderthals. Sometimes that's easy to forget, what with all the Twitter-related arrests and Plax-on-Plax violence.

But Ravens' linebacker and special-teamer Brendon Ayanbadejo seems particularly enlightened. Last week he attended an event to celebrate the relocation of Equality Maryland, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights group. Ayanbadejo is a proponent for same-sex marriage, and he has previously commented thoughtfully on the issue for Huffington Post (Via the Washington Blade):

"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?" Ayanbadejo wrote in the piece.

"How could our society grant more rights to a heterosexual one-night-stand wedding in Vegas than a gay couple that has been together for three, five, 10 years of true love? The divorce rate in America is currently 50 percent. I am willing to bet that same-sex marriages have a higher success rate than heterosexual marriages."

The Blade's Amy Cavanaugh adds that David Toth, Equality Maryland's interim executive director ... noted that when someone "like Brendon Ayanbadejo speaks out for marriage equality, scores of people who may not give thought to LGBT issues will hear crucial equality messages from someone they themselves aspire to be."

Agreed. And if Ayanbadejo's message also prompts somebody to do something about Britney Spears, too, even better.