Louis Marinelli, Former NOM Strategist, Urges New Yorkers To Support Gay Marriage
- By
- On Top Magazine Staff
- | April 18, 2011
Louis Marinelli, a former strategist for the anti-gay marriage group National Organization for Marriage (NOM), has recorded a video urging New Yorkers to support gay marriage
Marinelli quit the nation's most vociferous opponent of gay marriage two weeks ago, taking with him the group's official Facebook page and its 219,000 fans.
In his one minute video, Marinelli is seen standing in St. Petersburg, Russia urging New Yorkers back home to support the legalization of gay marriage.
“For years I worked against the constitutional principles of equality that I as a conservative Republican value very deeply,” Marinelli says. “And I was wrong.”
“During the summer tour I organized with the National Organization for Marriage last year to oppose marriage equality, I came to see that everyone was deserving of the freedom of marriage, because this is not a political issue. Being conservative and supporting marriage equality are not mutually exclusive. They are compatible.” (The video is embedded in the right panel of this page.)
The ad is not affiliated with the Human Rights Campaign's (HRC) New Yorkers For Marriage Equality but is similarly themed.
According to a new poll released last week, a majority (58%) of New York voters favor giving gay and lesbian couples the right to marry.