As Latinos become a larger and more politically powerful section of the American public, there are a number of good reasons to be interested in their political views and affiliations. Here is a progressive Latino organization that has told an official organization of the Catholic church that they can keep their money if it has strings of inequality attached to it.
Labor Group Stands Up To Catholic Church, Refuses To Cut Ties With LGBT Allies
Religious, labor, and LGBT groups are speaking up in support of Voz, a Latino workers rights organization, after a funding body of the Catholic church denied it a $75,000 grant for refusing to distance itself from organizations that support marriage equality.
Voz, which primarily helps Latino immigrants find work in Portland, Oregon, announced on Tuesday that the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) threatened to deny it a grant unless it cut ties with the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), a leading Latino rights group, because it supports same-sex marriage. Voz does not take a position on marriage equality as an organization, but when faced with the decision to either rebuke its allies or lose $75,000 of its $310,000 annual operating budget, the group’s leaders “self-disqualified” themselves from the grant by voting to continue their affiliation with the NCLR.
“Our board felt like what they were asking us to do was take a position on marriage equality,” Ranfis Villatoro, Voz’s development director, told the Oregonian. “By making this decision, we run the risk of decreasing staff size and decreasing hours.”
The CCHD is a project of the Catholic Church, making it subject to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, a longtime opponent of marriage equality. The CCHD has given Voz 10 grants since 1994, but said they rescinded access to this year’s grant because Voz’s allies were “assisting in something that was contrary to the teachings of [Catholic] traditions.” Romeo Sosa, Executive Director of Voz, told ThinkProgress that unless they cobble together another $75,000, the funding dip could result in cuts to his staff’s health benefits.
The National Council of La Raza is a long standing progressive Latino and labor organization. It would appear that there is a growing rift between such organizations and the right wing hierarchy of the Catholic church. What the situation of Voz amounts to is a group that really has no direct involvement with the issue of marriage equality. Financial support for their organization does not assist activity in support of marriage equality. This is an organized campaign to get at those organizations that do support the matter by interfering with the rights of other organizations to engage in politically necessary networking.
Congratulations to Voz for having the courage to stand up to bullying and intimidation. Here is a link to their website for anybody who would like to join me in sending a donation to help make up for their budgetary shortfall.