News Briefs

?They won?t magically turn you into a lustful cockmonster?

Baltimore--Maryland Rep. Emmett Burns may have more to worry about than opposing same-sex marriage. If he keeps running his mouth, he might get beaten by some football players.

Burns went to Ravens management to urge them to force linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo to keep his pro-marriage views to himself. In response, he was slapped with an open letter from Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe, who took offense at the affront to Ayanbadejo?s First Amendment rights.

?I can assure you that gay people will have zero effect on your life,? Kluwe wrote in the letter, which was published on the sports blog Deadspin.com. ?They won?t come into your house and steal your children. They won?t magically turn you into a lustful cockmonster. They won?t even overthrow the government in an orgy of hedonistic debauchery because all of a sudden they have the same legal rights as the other 90 percent of our population.?

That was in addition to telling the state legislator to have an intern explain the big words and calling him a narcissistic stain caused by the sweat from between the male scrotum and anus.

Kluwe pointed out that, while trying to stifle Ayanbadejo?s free speech protections under the First Amendment, Burns enjoys the religious protections of the amendment, as a Baptist minister.

?To call that hypocritical would be to do a disservice to the word. Mindfucking, obscenely hypocritical starts to approach it a little bit,? Kluwe noted.

Ayanbadejo is the son of a Nigerian man and an Irish-American woman. His parents separated when he was three, and his mother took him and his older brother to Chicago, where they lived in a housing project.

When they moved to Santa Cruz, California, Ayanbadejo rode a skateboard in addition to playing football, joined the drama club and befriended gay students.

In April 2009, he wrote a piece published in the Huffington Post supporting same-sex marriage, spurred by the lack of support for the issue from Barack Obama during the election the year before.

Both Maryland and Minnesota face marriage-related battles at the ballot box in November.

Soft-porn flyers sent in N.Y. races

New York City--A Republican primary devolved into gay-baiting earlier this month when Juan Reyes, once an aide to former mayor Rudolph Giuliani, sent out a mailing calling his opponent, Councilor Eric Ulrich, of being too gay-friendly for going out to dinner with an openly gay Democratic councilor and his husband.

In Buffalo, however, state Sen. Mark Grisanti was targeted by a mailing that calling him a ?whore? for voting in favor of marriage equality, saying that he received over three-quarters of a million dollars in donations to his campaign for the vote.

The flyer targeting Grisanti and the three other Republicans who voted in favor of the marriage law in the state senate included a picture from a gay pornographic video of one young man kissing another?s bare abdomen while starting to pull down his pants. The flyer was sent out via email by Matthew Ricchiazzi, a former mayoral candidate in Buffalo.

Cicilline wins his primary

Providence, R.I.--Rep. David Cicilline won the Democratic primary on September 11, sending him forward to face Republican Brendan Doherty in the general election.

Chuck Wolfe of the Victory Fund said that the contest presents a stark choice for Rhode Island voters, an openly gay politician seeking his sophomore term in Congress or a former head of the state police who opposes same-sex marriage.

Before his election to Congress, Cicilline was the mayor of Providence. It came out during his first term in the House of Representatives that the city had a $100 million shortfall in the budget, despite Cicilline?s optimistic view of the city?s finances.

He is, however, polling six points ahead of his Republican opponent.

Cicilline is one of four out incumbents in the U.S. House. Of the other three, Rep. Jared Polis of Colorado has no serious challenge in the November election, Rep. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin is leaving the House to seek a Senate seat, and Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts is retiring.

Among the non-incumbents running are Sean Patrick Maloney in New York, bisexual woman Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, Mark Takano of California, Mark Pocan of Wisconsin and Richard Tisei of Massachusetts, the only Republican in this group.

Poland may pass civil partnerships

Warsaw, Poland--Civil partnerships may be coming to a country once firmly sheathed behind the Iron Curtain.

Poland?s moderate-conservative ruling party, Platforma Obywatelska, will introduce a bill allowing civil partnerships for same-sex and opposite-sex couples, although the measure is facing opposition within the party and from the outside.

It is similar to France?s civil union law, and, as is the case with Britain?s marriage bill, it is being put forward by a conservative government. The bill will carry many of the responsibilities and benefits of marriage, but would not grant joint tax return status or adoption rights.

The party opposed a similar bill put forward by left-wing parties last year, but with the governing party and the left parties, it stands a strong chance of passage.

Player off team for kissing boyfriend

Dickson, N.D.--After kissing his older boyfriend at his first college game, Jamie Kuntz was kicked off the team.

North Dakota State College of the Sciences says he was not given the boot because of the kiss, but because he lied about it.

Kuntz was on a partial football scholarship and has since left the school.

The situation arose from the game against Pueblo, Colorado?s Snow College on Labor Day weekend. Kuntz, who had a concussion, was not cleared to play, so he and his boyfriend were in the press box. He was videotaping the game for the team when the kiss occurred.

A teammate saw it and told the coaches, one of whom confronted him about it on the ride back to the school. Kuntz told him it was his grandfather; his boyfriend is 65 years old.

The team?s player manual specifically notes lying to coaches or school staff as conduct harmful to the team.

Kuntz, however, believes his dismissal was more for the fact that he was kissing a man than for the lie.

Compiled by Brian DeWitt, Anthony Glassman and Patti Harris.