Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe has never been afraid to speak his mind. Over the last few years, Kluwe has poked fun at NFL training videos on permissible hits, took shots at the owners during labor negotiations and the league's 2011 memo regarding the faking of injuries. Kluwe's preferred avenue for speaking against injustices has been on Twitter, where he'd post white board drawings and messages to get his point across. The 30-year-old punter now is taking a more direct approach, standing up for marriage equality in Minnesota, which has a proposed constitutional amendment banning same-s*x marriages on the ballot this November. "Someone (from Minnesotans for Equality) contacted me on Twitter and asked if I’d be interested," Kluwe recently told Outsports.com. "I said yes. I’ve always believed that people are inherently the same and should have the same rights and equal protection under the law. It really doesn’t matter what you do with who or whom as long as you’re not infringing on someone else’s rights. Everyone should be free to live their own life however it makes them happy." Kluwe, who had a hand in writing the ads, adds that his brother in-law is gay, but is unable to wed his partner because it's illegal in California, Kluwe said that his relationship with his brother-in-law, however, was not a factor in his decision to speak out against the amendment. "One of the things my parents brought me up with is that you should have equality for everyone," he said. "I would like to think I have a pretty strong sense of justice and right and wrong. (The proposed marriage amendment) is just blatant discrimination and that’s not right, that’s wrong." Source: NFL.com
