Today, NCLR sent a letter to President Obama urging him to reconsider his decision to delay issuing an executive order (EO) that would bar federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identification.
The letter comes on the heels of a report we co-released last week which showed that Latinos are more accepting of LGBT people than what is commonly portrayed. The letter today further demonstrates NCLR’s belief in equality for all, especially our Latino LGBT brothers and sisters.
In the letter, vice president of NCLR’s policy department, Eric Rodriguez, writes:
"The EO is important to millions of Hispanic LGBT community members. According to a recent Center for American Progress report, the EO provides badly needed legal protection for the 43% of lesbian, gay, and bisexual and 90% of transgender workers who have experienced workplace discrimination."
The letter couldn't come at more prescient time as anti-LGBT forces have been summoned to defend their strategy to drive a wedge between the LGBT community and communities of color. We strongly condemned that practice in a blog post written by Rodriguez. We must also, however, be vigilant about making sure that pro-LGBT forces within the Obama administration understand how vital this executive order is to both of our communities in fighting those who are working to deny Americans their basic rights.
Click here to download a copy of the report released last week.