Largest Latino Group Backs Marriage Equality

Just days after LGBT groups joined activist groups of color to protest laws that penalize immigrants and people of color, the country’s largest Latino civil rights organization unanimously passed a resolution in support of marriage equality. Eric Rodriguez, vice president of public policy for the National Council of La Raza, told the Washington Blade that there was very little opposition to the vote, which came just weeks after the NAACP passed a similar measure.

Rodriguez told the Blade that La Raza members believe "that marriage equality is consistent with the mission—the civil rights mission—of our organization.” The group will announce the resolution formally during next month's annual convention in Las Vegas.

In addition to La Raza, the Blade notes that the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund president Thomas A. Saenz has backed same-sex marriage and the Texas chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens voted to support marriage equality recently as well, recent changes indicative of the growing support for same-sex marriage among Latinos.