How Laura M. Esquivel helped defeat the constitutional same-sex marriage ban
“La madre of the Latino LGBT Movement” was no stranger to activism by the time she began lobbying Latino lawmakers on marriage equality.
By Alex Bollinger for LGBTQ Nation –
In 2006, as Republicans were trying to pass the Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA) – which would have banned marriage equality in the U.S. – LGBTQ+ and Latina activist Laura M. Esquivel was in Congress, helping Latino lawmakers understand the bill and why they should oppose it.
Esquivel at that point was no stranger to activism. Often called “La madre of the Latino LGBT Movement,” she joined the Gay and Lesbian Latinos Unidos (GLLU) in Los Angeles and became its first lesbian president. She marched with labor rights leader Cesar Chavez in the ’80s, and co-founded the first national Latino LGBTQ+ organization, the National Latino/a Lesbian and Gay Organization (LLEGÓ, the word for “arrived” in Spanish).
Born in Los Angeles, Esquivel moved to D.C. to work with LLEGÓ in 1987 and, over a decade later, was fighting against the FMA. She said that the coalition of progressive organizations working against the FMA “couldn’t get support from Latino legislators” who “thought it was not a Latino issue,” according to Color Magazine. So she stepped in and started lobbying them.
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