Prominent Latinos Rally to Support California Marriage Amendment

“Prominent Latino leaders attended a rally today sponsored by Californians for Marriage calling for a constitutional amendment to protect marriage as a man and a woman before Governor Schwarzenegger’s expected veto of ’same-sex’ marriage legislation in the nation’s most populous state.

The rally was hosted by Dr. David P. Espinoza, Senior Pastor at La Trinidad Church in San Fernando, who noted the overwhelming national significance of California in the battle to protect marriage.

“In many ways, California is a leader,” said Dr. Espinoza. “California sets the styles, the fashions, the movies, the music, and in many ways as goes California, so goes America.”

Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, Jr., president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC) and an Advisory Board Member of the Alliance for Marriage Foundation, encouraged participants at the rally to stand and make their voices heard.

“We commit ourselves in mobilizing the large constituency of Latino voters in California in favor of a state constitutional amendment to protect marriage,” said Rev. Rodriguez, who also serves as Chairman of Californians for Marriage. “Let us protect ‘la familia’, our children, our communities and in doing so, we protect the American Dream.”

“Our families need to stand up. The ‘barrio’ cannot be quiet anymore,” added Rev. Felix Posos of Northern Pacific Latin American District of the Assemblies of God. “I believe that as Hispanics we have been very quite for too long. But it is time that people will hear that we have a voting voice.”

Rev. Gilbert Montelongo of the Tabernacle of Praise continued: “We are pressing on because of our belief in our faith and rich heritage. I encourage you to voice yourselves in this matter of great importance.”

Matt Daniels, president of the Alliance for Marriage Foundation (AFMF) — who drafted the Marriage Protection Amendment in Congress — joined leaders in California’s politically powerful Latino community at the rally.

“The outcome of the marriage battle in California will have sweeping national implications,” said Matt Daniels. “California is widely seen as a trend-setting state. So a defeat for marriage in California will be used by activist groups — and their allies in the courts — to herald the triumph of their cause nationally.”

Californians For Marriage is a new political committee organized to support petition and ballot campaign efforts within the Latino community — to add the language of Proposition 22 to California’s Constitution. Its website is www.californiansformarriage.org/.

The Latino-led political committee has been launched in response to ongoing efforts by activists to use both the California courts and legislature to invalidate the commonsense definition of marriage embodied in Proposition 22.

The Alliance for Marriage Foundation is a multicultural coalition whose Board of Advisors includes Rev. Walter Fauntroy — the D.C. Coordinator of the March on Washington for Martin Luther King Jr. — as well as other civil rights and religious leaders, and national legal experts.

Californians for Marriage”

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