AND HE'S OUT

Five Months Later, NOM-Defector Louis Marinelli Quits Fighting For Marriage Equality

For five years Louis Marinelli helped the National Organization for Marriage fight against LGBT rights. Then in April 2011, Marinelli renounced his work with NOM and pledged to fight for marriage equality. Now, after barely five months, Marinelli has decided to leave the marriage equality battleground to go do something else, partially because he’s tired of “crazy, whiny liberals.”

It takes a lot of time and work to fight for marriage equality, but five months isn’t nearly enough for Marinelli to undo his five years of damage working with NOM. After the HRC stole his idea for a summer equality bus tour, Marinelli scrubbed all mentions of said tour from his site and signed off on his pro-equality work with two (now deleted) posts entitled, “No More sticking my neck out” and “A Statement regarding my future plans.”

In one Facebook post he said, “Today I announced that advocating for marriage equality will no longer be the central focus of my life. I still support gay rights and will continue to blog about it but as for devoting my career or majority of my time to activism, I have no desire to do so. I am stepping away from direct activism.” He also tweeted, “I support marriage equality as a constitutional principle but there is no place for me standing among crazy, whiny liberals.” He said he will blog about current events from here on out but that will be the extent of his activism.

Bilerico commenter Scoot Wooledge said, “I wish Louis had been met with more support and less suspicion from the LGBT community. He did seem like a wasted asset. I observed some of the distrust and out and out hostility Louis received from our community. I can see why he’s backed off. I consider it a shame to have lost him.”

But did angry LGBTs and liberals drive this Republican convert away from the fight for queer rights or did Marinelli realize that supporting marriage equality pays a lot less than opposing it? Inquiring minds and all that.

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