Louis Marinelli, a NOM (National Organization for Marriage) strategist has defected, and now supports full civil marriage equality. After five years of rallying against LGBT persons, Marinelli has quit NOM and has taken their face book page, with a fan base of 290,000 with him when he left. Being the administrator of the NOM face book page, Marinelli decided he would stop spreading hatred against LGBT people by taking the page down.
“The lesbian and gay people whom I made a profession out of opposing became real people for me almost instantly,” he said. “For the first time I had empathy for them and remember asking myself what I was doing,” Marinelli continued, I was largely taken aback by the fact that the page I created had become such a hateful place. My comments and rhetoric paled in comparison to what that place had turned into.
“I began to understand why the gay community was out there, claiming opposition to same-sex civil marriage was all about hate,” he said. ” I soon realized that there I was surrounded by hateful people; propping up a cause I created five years ago, a cause which I had begun to question.” Marinelli went on to say, “My name is Louis J. Marinelli, a conservative-Republican and I now support full civil marriage equality. The constitution calls for nothing less.”
NOM has tried to down play Marinelli’s role in their organization, but in reality he was responsible for their social media and bus touring departments. NOM President Brian Brown said, “Marinelli worked in a volunteer capacity as a bus driver during our summer marriage tour, around this time, NOM began to pay him as a part-time consultant for helping us expand our Internet reach. He has since chosen a different focus. We wish him well.”
At the time of this writing the new-er NOM face book page had 983 likes, a far cry from its previous high of 290,000. Do these low numbers reflect a change of heart in NOM members such as Marinelli had?
Louis Marinelli, a NOM (National Organization for Marriage) strategist has defected, and now supports full civil marriage equality. After five years of rallying against LGBT persons, Marinelli has quit NOM and has taken their face book page, with a fan base of 290,000 with him when he left. Being the administrator of the NOM face book page, Marinelli decided he would stop spreading hatred against LGBT people by taking the page down.
