Adam Bink takes over NOMTourTracker.com site management: Please welcome Adam to the NTT community!

Hey everyone — I’ve got some great, great news. Adam Bink, who blogs for Open Left is going to be taking the lead on managing NOMTourTracker.com right up until the final event in Washington, D.C. on August 15.

After two amazing weeks of managing the Tour Tracker, we decided that giving Adam the reins would help increase our capacity to cover even more on the tour as well as give me the time to focus on promoting our tour coverage to the outside world, including more than 700,000 Courage Campaign Institute members.

If you’ve read Adam’s work over the years, you know that he’s one of the best bloggers out there, on LGBT issues as well as on the progressive movement. With his deep experience and knowledge of the LGBT movement and his passion for holding NOM accountable, I’m confident that we’ll be able to take NOMTourTracker.com to the next level.

Please take a moment in the comments and welcome Adam.

Eden James
Managing Director
Courage Campaign Institute

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I said “Yes” because of you. Yes, you.

by Adam Bink

Hey there, fellow equality supporters! Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Adam Bink, an editor over at the progressive political blog OpenLeft.com, and I’m happy to be taking over the editorial reins from Eden here at NOMTrialTracker for the next coupla weeks. I want to do two things here- one is tell you a bit about myself, and two is get into how my role here came about.

OpenLeft is a blog founded in July 2007 to strengthen dialogues between “inside” and “outside” political organizations and activists. We’re also a blog that prides itself on combining writing and activism. We engage in strategic e-campaigns where we can. At OpenLeft, I’ve covered the LGBT “beat” since last year, and ramped it up when I started working with the No On 1 campaign to protect marriage equality in Maine (which is how I got to know Eden).

Last year, we raised over $1.4 million on ActBlue for the No On 1 campaign, helped supporters from all over the country travel to Maine, and built a killer web operation. I even had the opportunity to travel to Maine when readers contributed to cover my travel expenses. While on the ground, I both worked with the No On 1 team, as well as covered issues like the battle between the Catholic Bishop and equality supporters, helped raise awareness about the three LGBT elections that fall (along with 46 other blogs), and discussed some hidden truths behind past state ballot losses on marriage equality (you can read all of my coverage by clicking here).

I went on to cover the efforts to legalize the freedom to marry for same-sex couples in my home state of New York as well as New Jersey, and have been writing and organizing on this critical issue ever since. So I want to let you know that working on marriage equality is something I live and breathe personally, and I’m looking forward to working with you on that.

Second, let me get a little bit into how this new role came about.

Over the long weekend while Eden and I were at the Netroots Nation conference, he asked me to take over the blog management here at NOMTrialTracker for the rest of the tour. I’m a bit busy myself, so I wasn’t sure I’d have the time. Then I went back and re-read the posts for the last few weeks, along with your comments.

And I was inspired. I’ve been a longtime activist for marriage equality, and I’ve met folks out there in our great country at rallies and in campaign war rooms who just don’t give up. Their determination is inspiring. I saw the same thing in comment threads here. The research, photos, news tracking I see is fantastic. Even the snark (hi, Louis!) is awesome. And I knew we could finish this tour together, and even take it a step up.

So I’ll be e-working with our team to keep bringing you the same intrepid coverage of NOM and their big dose of #FAIL, day-in and day-out. And I’ll even be adding some new features to have a little fun at NOM’s expense. Together, we’ll keep beating back the narrative that NOM is a credible, successful organization- and keep marching towards winning equality for same-sex couples, nationwide.

Onward!