Over the weekend Sean Avery, the former Vogue intern and left wing for the Rangers, released a Human Rights Campaign video in support of marriage equality. The video, the first of its kind from a professional New York athlete, was met with the expected mix reactions, including an unfortunate series of tweets by Uptown Sports agent Todd Reynolds ("Very sad to read Sean Avery's misguided support of same-gender "marriage". Legal or not, it will always be wrong"). But then something interesting happened. Instead of agreeing with Reynolds, the notoriously homophobic sports community seems to be taking the just plain notorious Avery's side.

Coyotes forward and heavy Twitterer Paul Bissonnette, for instance, came out in support of Avery (and marriage equality) tweeting "I agree with Sean Avery and his comments on the same-sex marriage issue ... If 2 people are happy together let them be happy." That tweet was then met with a many, many approving tweets along the lines of "it's still so weird to me that i completely agree with something sean avery is doing."

Avery's video (which joins similar videos from the likes of Barbara Bush, Mike Bloomberg and Julianne Moore) comes as the issue of marriage equality returns to the forefront of New York State politics, with a new bill on the subject being introduced into the Assembly last night.

By Garth Johnston Gothamist.com