Washington - Late yesterday the president of a sports agency representing some of the National Hockey League's (NHL) top players compared gay marriage to bestiality. Don Reynolds, president of the Canadian-based Uptown Sports Management made his comments a day after New York Ranger forward Sean Avery announced that his support for marriage equality in New York state via a video for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). Sean Avery was a "trending topic" on Twitter last night and his video on HRC's YouTube account has been viewed over 148,000 views as of this morning.

In an interview with the National Post of Canada, Reynolds said, "The majority, I think, of Canadians would say that they don't agree with gay marriage - that man and woman were created to be married, not man and man or man and horse, you know?" Gay and lesbian couples have been getting married legally nationwide in Canada since 2005.

"After Mr. Reynolds is briefed on what marriage is, we call on him to apologize for and retract his outrageous misstatement," said HRC President Joe Solmonese. "This is hate and bigotry of the highest order and has no place in sports or in society. We urge the players represented by Mr. Reynolds to reject his ignorant remarks."

Reynolds' son Todd sent a series of tweets from the company's official Twitter account yesterday confirming their discriminatory views on the issue:

Uptown Sports represents many NHL players including Mike Fisher, husband of country music superstar Carrie Underwood, and Mike Brenner of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Sports agents and hockey professionals are coming out in support of Avery and against Uptown Sports.

Agent Andrew Warren noted on his Twitter feed, "As an admirer of Brendan Burke I felt the need to return to Twitter due to my distaste of @uptownhockey take on the issue of gay marriage." NHL Star Paul Bissonnette: "I agree with Sean Avery and his comments on the same sex marriage issue @NortonSports. If 2 people are happy together let them be happy."

The Human Rights Campaign is America's largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. By inspiring and engaging all Americans, HRC strives to end discrimination against LGBT citizens and realize a nation that achieves fundamental fairness and equality for all.