Prerna Lal posted this article to Change.org’s immigrant rights blog. Heartening to see that even as immigration reform suffers, there are a few bright spots on the horizon. Kudos to the LGBT and immigrant communities for having the courage to speak up for one another.

In a show of solidarity between the immigrant rights movement and the LGBT community, MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund) President Thomas Saenz, delivered a keynote speech advocating for comprehensive and inclusive immigration reform at the largest conference for LGBT equality, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Creating Change conference in Dallas, Texas.

Saenz, who was tapped to head the DOJ Civil Rights Division under the Obama Administration, assumed a leadership role at the Mexican-American Legal and Defense Education Fund last year. He took the platform at Creating Change to express his interest in deepening collaboration and partnership between LGBT and immigrant communities.

The MALDEF President dismissed “pundits who opine freely that the LGBT and Latino communities cannot work together because of the philosophy and beliefs of the Latino community,” stating that this perspective was deeply flawed since the communities are integral parts of each other and overlap consistently.

Read the entire article here.