You may not know the name Louis Marinelli, but you know his work for NOM. He was the brainchild behind NOM’s Summer Marriage Tour of 2010. He did it all: drove their bus, ran their camera, and blogged it. Louis also created the Facebook page, Protect Marriage: One Man One Woman, which NOM used as their official Facebook home. Louis has been working for the organization, on salary, moderating the Facebook page — until now.

Today, via the ever-amazing Jeremy Hooper at Good As You, we learn that Louis has resigned from NOM and came out as a full supporter of civil marriage equality. In his words:

As a supporter of civil marriage equality, any statements I’ve made in the past about not recognizing homosexual relationships for one reason or another, of course it goes without saying that I no longer stand by these comments and I apologize for the insensitivity. Same-sex couples, whether they are married, in civil unions or domestic partnerships, ought to be recognized for what they are.

Jeremy’s post is a must read. He’s got a long interview with Louis — and reports “The NOM Facebook page is going into shutdown mode as we speak (10AM, 4/8). Louis has seized control, already deleting posts and changing the branding.”

The interview is fascinating. Louis explains how the NOM Tour changed his views:

Ironically, one of the last tour stops added to the itinerary was Atlanta and I bring this site up because it was in Atlanta that I can remember that I questioned what I was doing for the first time. The NOM showing in the heart of the Bible-belt was dismal and the hundreds of counter-protesters who showed up were nothing short of inspiring. Even though I had been confronted by the counter-protesters throughout the marriage tour, the lesbian and gay people whom I made a profession out of opposing became real people for me almost instantly. For the first time I had empathy for them and remember asking myself what I was doing. If my transition from opponent to supporter of same-sex civil marriage was a timeline, Atlanta would be indicated by the first point on the line. The next point on that timeline would be two months later.

Fascinating.

As Jeremy wrote to me earlier, “Exposure to NOM could lead to unintended side effects.”