'NOM' Defector Louis Marinelli Launches 'NOME'
Louis Marinelli, the defector from the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) who planned and served as the bus driver on NOM's hateful "Summer for Marriage Tour", has launched a new group, the National Organization for Marriage Equality (NOME) and according to his site, plans to visit 17 states on a tour this summer.
This summer we plan to travel the country from California to Maine to talk about my change of heart on the issue of marriage equality and talk with conservatives and republicans about why they should support the freedom to marry.
This tour, which is modeled in part after the Summer for Marriage Tour I helped organize last summer for the National Organization for Marriage to oppose same-sex marriage, aims to revisit many of the places NOM visited last year to spread its discriminatory and bigoted message against gay and lesbian citizens.
I am personally responsible for that tour. It was my idea and I proposed it to Brian Brown, NOM’s President, who agreed to endorse and sponsor the project. As a result, I feel compelled to revisit the cities of last year’s marriage tour to meet the thousands of people who came out to meet discrimination and bigotry head on in the streets of their hometowns.
Because it was these counter-protesters that led to my change of heart in support of same-sex marriage and my subsequent resignation from the National Organization for Marriage, this tour will serve as a testament to that change and I look forward to seeing many of the same faces and families I saw last year so that this year I can stand with them, not against them.
Another scam meant to distract support away from legitimate LGBTT organizations.
Posted by: Nelson G | Jul 21, 2011 3:06:08 PM
Congratulations, Nelson G, for the first crazy post of the thread!
Posted by: ohplease | Jul 21, 2011 3:12:04 PM
I like it..NOME..National Organization for Marriage for EVERYONE
Posted by: Gay American | Jul 21, 2011 3:16:18 PM
Hope this pisses off Maggie & Brian. Louis took NOM and just added Equality! Cool. That's what it's all about.
Posted by: Married in MA | Jul 21, 2011 3:23:58 PM
Yeah - umm way to go Nelson G for attracting and supporting straight allies and friends.
Props to Louis M for spending your own money and effort to do this. To admit you were misguided by people, and turn around and work for other people's civil rights is awesome and should be applauded.
Posted by: Scott | Jul 21, 2011 3:25:20 PM
A straight person who was once against gay marriage and has had a change of heart can speak to opponents of gay marriage on a terrain that LGBT people really can't for many reasons. We need ally's who can speak to the ideas and myths that make people oppose marriage equality and questions that thinking from inside. This guy is in a unique position to help and seem to be amending his wrongs against our community. Bravo!
Posted by: David | Jul 21, 2011 3:31:18 PM
I don't believe for a second that Louis Marinelli genuinely cares one way or the other. This is just another jackass pandering to whichever audience he thinks is going to financially support him the most. Most likely this isn't political, but a big FU to his former employers. Probably totally unrelated to anything having to do with sincerity.
Posted by: Chase | Jul 21, 2011 3:34:10 PM
100% agree Chase. I called this from the beginning. Anyone that switches from extreme ideologies so quickly are empty inside and desperately feel the desire to cling onto something.
His 'activism' isn't about us, it's about his desperation to be a part of something. He openly admits he still thinks being gay is wrong yet he's going on this national crusade to fight for us? It's selfish and pandering at its worst.
But of course gay men are eating it up because A) a masculine male is on our side and that legitimizes the humanity of many gay males and B) he's a kinda hot white guy, and when hasn't that been enough?
So sick.
Posted by: Cory | Jul 21, 2011 4:13:05 PM
Chase & Cory, that's ridiculous.
A lot of people have a change of heart about equality, moving from opposition to support. Most do it privately to avoid having to admit they were wrong and face their former critics.
Most people who DO make the switch publicly then defend their former beliefs, again to avoid admitting fault.
And most people who make the switch public, and then admit fault, still don't work all that hard to reverse the damage they did.
Louis made some terrible and costly mistakes, but not only did he own up to them, he did it publicly -- ensuring he'd have few friends by the end of it -- and is now spending his own resources trying to help. If all he was after was financial success, he would've stayed with NOM.
If you're not yet convinced by him, that's fine. But it's unbelievably stupid to flat-out assume what you have.
Posted by: rafi | Jul 21, 2011 4:23:59 PM
@Chase @Cory You might be right. In fact you are probably right. But, so what? So what if he helps us by reversing some of the harm he perpetuated then more power to him. If he makes a buck off of it, I don't really care about that either.
As long as his message is effective and consistent with equal rights for all, I could care less about his motivations.
Posted by: JD Swell | Jul 21, 2011 4:24:04 PM
Also, Louis Marinelli, "kinda hot"? Really?
Posted by: rafi | Jul 21, 2011 4:28:03 PM
Now I've got the Gnome Mobile song stuck in my head:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIGtsKYcYGM
Posted by: Anastasia Beaverhausen | Jul 21, 2011 4:36:47 PM
I wouldn't believe this guy is a divine light shone on him from the heavens...he is not to be trusted.
Posted by: lk | Jul 21, 2011 4:37:12 PM
@Scott - and you believe Louis is an ally, why? Because Jeremy Hooper said so? Hey, if you want to splurge your money on Louis and his Russian bride, by all means, papa.
Posted by: Nelson G | Jul 21, 2011 4:45:20 PM
I honestly had no idea who this guy is or whether he's "kinda hot" or "masculine" but it seems to me that this is exactly the kind of change of heart that the gay community has been working for when we say that people's minds can be changed once they see the actual people their empty hate and fear-based mindset is affecting.
When the big scary Gays are exposed to be the people down the street or someone in your family that you've loved for years, then often they become less easy targets for mindless rhetoric and blanket disrespect. Yes, "you have to be carefully taught" to hate, but I believe it is also possible to be "untaught" when the "enemy" has a face, a name, a family and can be seen as a living, breathing person just living their life and loving who they love.
Posted by: LACineman | Jul 21, 2011 6:19:54 PM
Skeptics should read things he's written since his "conversion."
I am impressed by him.
His change of heart was a huge blow to NOM.
I think we should absolutely welcome changes of heart like this.
Posted by: Rational Roger | Jul 21, 2011 7:13:46 PM
what is a man and a woman?
The biggest problem is that laws like the California initiative will make the courts decide who is male and who is female — and all available decision criteria create unavoidable miscarriages of justice that will, or should, dismay initiative proponents.
You're probably thinking, about now, that I'm going to exaggerate the sex-definitional1 problem: Probably, you and everyone you know is unambiguously male or female — or at least has always believed himself or herself to be so, and nobody's challenged that, and nobody's likely to.
That's true, absolutely: Only maybe one live birth in 100 has some non-standard sex anatomy, and genetic anomalies are slightly rarer than that. However, let's talk about those 1-in-100 or 1-in-1000 cases — because those could be you, or your aunt, or your best friend — and because our system of law has to deal with 1-in-1000 situations, too.
http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Essays/marriage.html
Posted by: megamike | Jul 21, 2011 8:03:40 PM
+1 Lacineman!!!
Posted by: castaway | Jul 21, 2011 9:27:01 PM
NOME? That guy has more balls than Maggie has chins.
Posted by: Frank | Jul 22, 2011 12:42:16 AM
This guy continues to impress. Hopefully people will come out to see the tour.
Posted by: Randy | Jul 22, 2011 2:22:01 AM