Shortly after 6 pm EST this evening, several hundred football fans will sit down at a dinner honoring Super Bowl-winning Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy — and raise thousands of dollars for the Indiana Family Institute, a group fighting against gay and lesbian rights in Indiana.

Tony Dungy has every right to raise money for a cause he believes in. But if you were one of the lucky folks who got an invitation to the dinner, you might have noticed it featured a large image of the coach in his Colts uniform, clearly sporting the NFL team logo. Does the NFL have a problem with that, or do they not mind when their trademarks, logos and uniforms are used for political purposes by players, coaches and employees?

"Of course we regulate the use of NFL marks and logos," NFL spokesperson Greg Aiello told AfterElton.com. When asked if it falls within NFL guidelines for Tony Dungy to appear in uniform in promotional materials for the Indiana Family Institute, Aiello replied, "Yes, in this context, a dinner in his honor." He also emphasized, "I believe I have made it clear that we have no issue with this dinner."

Acknowledging that someone has a right to do something is not the same as not having an "issue" with it, and gay fans might find it hard to understand why the NFL has no "issue" with an NFL logo and uniform being used to promote a fundraiser for a group that has been so vitriolic in their political opposition to GLBT rights. On their website, the IFI, which is affiliated with James Dobson's Focus on the Family group, has published article after article attacking gay rights, as well as election guides outlining how to support anti-gay politicians.

In an article entitled "Christians, countrymen, lend me your ears!" IFI director of public policy Ryan McCann wrote, "The Indiana Family Institute, along side many other conservative organizations, activists, pastors and citizens took a stand against the gay rights agenda" in opposition to an Indianapolis measure adding "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" to an anti-discrimination law.

McCann wrote: "The proposal being pushed by the gay rights agenda at any given time is not their end goal. Adding 'sexual orientation' and 'gender identity' into discrimination law so that Marion County public schools are forced to hire cross-dressers to provide children with a second rate (I'm being generous) education is not the end game."

Other articles on the site state that LGBT people are "trapped by Satan" in their "homosexual lifestyle," and that "30 percent of all 20-year-old homosexual men will be HIV positive or dead by the age of 30." They rant against a legal decision favorable to same-sex parenting and claim that since "[h]omosexuals can never spontaneously reproduce," gays and lesbians should be denied equal rights to marriage. They even issue a policy statement opposing nondiscrimination in the workplace for lesbians and gay men.

So what was the NFL thinking when they said they had "no issue" with this dinner? Don't they even have a slight issue with how gay and lesbian fans might feel seeing an NFL team logo and uniform on a mailing for a fundraising dinner for a group so opposed to their basic civil rights?

"We do not police the activities of individual team employees except insofar as they might conflict with an existing league-wide relationship," stated Aiello in an email to AfterElton.com. "Thus, we do not intervene when coaches or players or others appear in support of public interest organizations, political candidates, religious groups, etc. This dinner does not suggest an affiliation between the NFL and this organization. It is simply a dinner honoring Tony Dungy."

Out gay sportswriter LZ Granderson, host of the ESPN360 talk show Game Night, told AfterElton.com: "Honestly, I just don't think the NFL looked that closely into the mission statement of the organization because the title alone sounds like a positive thing for Dungy and the NFL to be associated with. … That organization is a faith-based nonprofit, so it doesn't surprise me that it would view homosexuality as a sin and Dungy, being a religious man, would be associated with that group. But with that being said, I would have a significant problem if an organization such as HRC wanted to honor a player or coach and the NFL refused to allow images associated with the league to be used in promoting that honor because of the precedent that has been set."

How about the Colts? Did they have any problem with their winning coach raising money for an aggressive anti-gay political organization while wearing his uniform? The Colts claim, as reported in a March 10 article in the Indianapolis Star, that they were "unaware of any specific goals of the Indiana Family Institute."

But on Feb. 9, AfterElton.com contacted the Colts' press department to request a comment on Dungy's appearance in his uniform in the IFI mailing; we also identified the IFI as an anti-gay political organization. Nicole Duncan responded and said that Colts vice president of public relations, Craig Kelley, would handle the request, but we received no further reply to emails asking for comment on the matter.