The creator of the National Organization for Marriage's 2010 "Summer for Marriage Tour" explains how he saw the light on same-sex marriage.

"Having spent the last five years putting all of my political will, interest and energy into fighting against the spread of same-sex marriage as if it were a contagious disease, I must admit that it is hard for me to put the following text into words let alone utter them with my own voice." "I now support full marriage equality."

Louis Marinelli tells the story of how he came to a few realizations while on his anti-same-sex-marriage tour:

I really came to understand that gays and lesbians were just real people who wanted to live real lives and be treated equally as opposed to, for example, wanting to destroy American culture. . . .

I soon realized that there I was surrounded by hateful people; propping up a cause I created five years ago, a cause which I had begun to question.

The whole post is worth a read.

In an email interview, he gives more specific critiques and recantations of some of his past statements. This is my favorite:

Once I wrote that homosexuals are deceitful people who care only about themselves or something to that effect. Honestly, aren’t we all? It was wrong for me to exclude everyone else from that description. We all lie and when it comes down to it, we will do what is best for ourselves. So throwing in a little levity, I stand by the comment but want to apologize for limiting its scope to the gay community.

Remember the 2005 press conference of San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders?