An Equal Rights Reason to Watch the Super Bowl

by Michael Jones · 2010-01-25 06:55:00 UTC
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Scott FujitaCBS may be moving forward with plans to run a Super Bowl advertisement from right-wing radical group Focus on the Family. Letters continue to pour into the network, urging them to nix the ad, since Focus on the Family has had a special place in history for calling LGBT people evil, trashing reproductive rights for women, and telling girls that sex education strips them of their modesty.

Hopefully CBS will get their ship in order. Meanwhile, if you needed a pro-LGBT reason to watch the Super Bowl, here's one: One of the NFL's champions for marriage equality will be playing. That would be New Orleans Saints linebacker Scott Fujita (#55 in the picture above), who earlier this year went on record saying that people need to stop being so damn homophobic, and start looking at the issue of same-sex marriage through a lens of civil equality. Huh, maybe CBS and Focus on the Family should take a lesson.

"People could look at this issue without blinders on...the blinders imposed by their church, their parents, their friends or, in our case, their coaches and locker rooms," Fujita said last September. "I wish they would realize that it's not a religion issue. It's not a government issue. It's not even a gay/straight issue or a question of your manhood. It's a human issue. And until more people see that, we're stuck arguing with people who don't have an argument."

Somewhere Pat Robertson is dooming the New Orleans Saints to colossal defeat. Meanwhile, Scott Fujita keeps having a pretty stellar year. He was just named New Orleans Saints Man of the Year for his work on the field and in the community, where in addition to supporting marriage equality, he also supports organizations for children with life-threatening illnesses, and organizations that raise awareness for breast cancer.

If only we had more Scott Fujitas in the sports world winning awards. You know, unlike certain other players winning awards for courage after spending time in jail for raising dogs to attack one another.

Photo credit: numba2393

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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