HRC Back Story

The always outspoken Charles Barkley appeared on CNN's The Situation Room last week and announced his support for marriage equality. Barkley, who says he plans to run for governor of Alabama in 2014, also expresses disdain for what he calls "fake Christians," who judge others and fail to practice forgiveness as their religion instructs. He was on the show in part to promote Sen. Barack Obama's run for the presidency.

This is surprising for two reasons. First, Barkley at one time said he supported Republicans because he believed Democrats would raise his taxes. But on the show, he told host Wolf Blitzer that he supports Obama in part because of his economic policies that would mitigate the divide between rich and poor. Barkley's support of same-sex marriage also strays from the beliefs of today's prominent Republicans - including Sen. John McCain, who represents Barkley in Arizona.

Second, it's not often that an athlete of Barkley's status publicly declares support of GLBT rights. Of course, John Amaechi - HRC's Coming Out spokesperson - has drawn a tremendous amount of attention to GLBT athletes. But we also hear about homophobia coming from the sports world fairly often. ESPN.com's LZ Granderson wrote a story about this recently, and notes that last year NBA star Tim Hardaway drew fire for his anti-gay comments. Granderson also discusses Cleveland Browns quarterback Brady Quinn, who is accused of being part of a group that used anti-gay slurs and harrassed several GLBT people recently. So Barkley's remarks are refreshing.

Watch Barkley on CNN's The Situation Room below.