The National Council of La Raza (NCLR),
the nation's largest Latino civil rights group, earlier this month
approved a resolution endorsing gay marriage.
According to gay weekly The
Washington Blade, the organization's board unanimously
approved the resolution on June 9.
Eric Rodriguez, vice president of
public policy at NCLR, told the paper that there was strong support
for the resolution.
“There was discussion for that period
of time, but everyone [felt] really strongly that supporting what we
had already put out there in terms of our statement was the right
thing to do,” he said.
Rodriguez said that NCLR believes “that
marriage equality is consistent with the mission – the civil rights
mission – of our organization.”
NCLR President Janet Murguia said that
the vote “recognizes that marriage equality and LGBT issues are,
and need to be, part of NCLR's core civil rights agenda.”
The resolution will be announced during
the group's annual convention in Las Vegas next month.
Late last month, the board of directors
of the National Association for the Deaf (NAD) made
a similar endorsement.
Both groups are following in the
footsteps of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People (NAACP), which
endorsed such unions last month.