WASHINGTON (BP)–A consultant who helped build the National Organization for Marriage’s Facebook page into a following of more than 250,000 says he now supports “gay marriage” — and he has taken all of the Facebook followers with him.
The National Organization for Marriage has launched a new Facebook page, online at Facebook.com/NationforMarriage. As of April 11, it had around 500 followers.
The organization played a critical role in overturning “gay marriage” laws in California and Maine and is seen by many as the leading national group fighting to protect laws defining marriage as one man, one woman.
The consultant, Louis Marinelli, announced on his website that he began rethinking his position on “gay marriage” during a National Organization for Marriage bus tour last year. In a statement he said he “apologized and recanted” everything he had said about the issue.
Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage, released a statement, saying, “Louis 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.”
Marinelli apparently designed the old Facebook page, which can no longer be found using a Facebook search.
PROP 8 JUDGE SAYS HE’S GAY — Vaughn Walker, the federal judge who struck down California Proposition 8 last year, confirmed he is homosexual during an interview with reporters. He also defended his decision not to recuse himself from the case.
“If you thought a judge’s sexuality, ethnicity, national origin [or] gender would prevent the judge from handling a case, that’s a very slippery slope,” Walker told reporters April 6, according to the Associated Press. “I don’t think it’s relevant.”
Walker retired earlier this year. His controversial ruling is being appealed. Although he previously had not made any public comments about his sexuality, friends during the trial told the media that Walker was indeed homosexual, although they said he was impartial.
Walker was assigned the case randomly. Prop 8 is a California voter-approved constitutional amendment that defines marriage as being between a man and a woman. If Walker’s ruling is upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, “gay marriage” could be legalized in all 50 states.
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Compiled by Michael Foust, associate editor of Baptist Press.
