About a week ago Jeremy Hooper of Good AS You, broke a big news story that shook the ground beneath the feet of both the pro-gay marriage and anti-gay marriage forces. Fortunately it was great news for those of us who support full marriage equality and pretty humiliating news for those who have dedicated their lives to making sure our glbtq loved ones remain second-class citizens, hidden away and worthy of nothing but scorn, demonization, and dehumanization.
Unfortunately, this story most likely flew under most people's radar screen (but thanks to Lawrence O'Donnell this story will reach a wider audience - see clip below), but for anyone passionately or even mildly involved with marriage equality issues, this story measured a 9.0 on the richter scale. And it certainly added a much needed lift to anyone who believes in full marriage equality for our glbtq loved ones.
So what was this one step forward that caused such a ruckus? It was the change of heart and mind of a young man named Louis Marinelli, a guy who felt so passionately about one-man one-woman marriage that he would do anything to keep our gay loved ones from being recognized as fellow human beings worthy of the same legal recognitions and protections that the rest of our country's citizens enjoy and take for granted when they get married. In fact Louis felt so strongly about keeping our gay loved ones second-class citizens that he joined forces with NOM, the National Organization for Marriage (just recently labeled a Hate Group by the Southern Poverty Law Center).
And Louis was good. In fact he was so good (at being anti-gay) he soon wiggled his way into the stone cold hearts of NOM's officers: Maggie Gallagher, Brian S. Brown, and Robert P. George. It wasn't long before Louis found himself in increasingly more visible and prominent positions within the organization. And that quick rise in the ranks resulted in Louis becoming a trusted and valuable part of the team with duties such as sending out incendiary tweets with debunked pseudo-science and outright hateful lies to portray our gay loved ones as scary less-than-human monsters, and starting/maintaining a NOM Facebook page that soon had 290,000 followers. But probably Louis' biggest and most visible sign of committment to NOM was his decision to drive the RV NOM used for their headline-grabbing, much publicized, nationwide marriage tour last summer, while blogging about the cross-country adventure, and providing general support for the road-bound NOM.
And then something wonderful happened. Louis had gotten himself in such a visible position within NOM that he started actually meeting some of these people he'd worked so diligently to demonize. And it didn't take long for him to realize that the people he'd been channeling all of his energies into stripping of rights, dignity, and respect were not much different than him --- and certainly not the monsters he worked so hard to portray them as. And then...
Much to the horror of Maggie Gallagher, Brian S. Brown, and Robert P. George, the Nom hate-bigots, Louis Marinelli completely reversed himself on his one-man-one-woman marriage stance. Yup. You heard right. A complete reversal. LOUIS MARINELLI NOW SUPPORTS FULL CIVIL MARRIAGE EQUALITY. And the full story in all its glory can be read over at Jeremy Hooper's blog. It is a wonderful read and well worth the click over.
And here is Lawrence O'Donnell using his National spotlight to tell the story as well:
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