{"id":24857,"date":"2011-01-07T06:32:17","date_gmt":"2011-01-07T13:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=24857"},"modified":"2011-01-07T06:32:23","modified_gmt":"2011-01-07T13:32:23","slug":"good-for-gays-necessary-for-new-mexicans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/01\/good-for-gays-necessary-for-new-mexicans\/","title":{"rendered":"Good for gays, necessary for New Mexicans"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Michael Ray Huerta<\/p><\/div>\n

Forget the ideology.<\/p>\n

For a few moments, set aside your belief that I chose to be a raging \u201chomosexual\u201d whose only mission is to convert your children, and I\u2019ll set aside my belief that you\u2019re a bigot whose misunderstanding of the Constitution is matched only by your religious hypocrisy.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s just forget about all that.<\/p>\n

Instead, why don\u2019t we talk about something we can all agree on. New Mexico needs jobs, and all of us – gay or straight – could use an economic revival in our lives. That is why this week\u2019s opinion<\/a> from Attorney General Gary King stating that New Mexico should recognize all out-of-state marriages – included same-sex marriages – was such good news.<\/p>\n

In 2010, the economic buying power of the LGBT community grew to $743 billion. According to numerous studies, same-sex households are more likely to spend their increasing wealth than their heterosexual counterparts. Other studies, including one from the nonpartisan Urban Institute, explain that diversified and tolerant communities directly affect the growth and development of high-technologies.<\/p>\n

Strong buying power. Skilled labor. Willingness to spend money.<\/p>\n

Forget the ideology.<\/p>\n

I agree with our new Governor, Susana Martinez. We want people outside of New Mexico to know that we\u2019re \u201c…open for business,\u201d and that our state is \u201c…inviting people not only to grow their businesses here,\u201d but to also grow their families and communities. What better way to do that than by telling Americans that New Mexico welcomes – with open arms – all hard-working people, regardless of their marital status.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re high on partisanship in this state, and low on economic development. So how about, just this once, we forget the ideology, and instead focus on getting our state back on track. Because in the end, while the attorney general\u2019s opinion is good for gays, it is more importantly necessary for New Mexicans.<\/p>\n

Huerta is a lifelong New Mexican from\u00a0Las Cruces. His r\u00e9sum\u00e9 includes work with The\u00a0Human Rights Campaign,\u00a0Hillary Clinton\u00a0for President, Rep.\u00a0Harry Teague, AmeriCorps, and serving as an elected delegate to the\u00a02008 Democratic National Convention. Huerta now leads communications and operations at Citizen Schools\u00a0New Mexico, a national non-profit that focuses on education reform.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Mexico needs jobs, and all of us – gay or straight – could use an economic revival in our lives. That is why this week\u2019s opinion from Attorney General Gary King stating that New Mexico should recognize all out-of-state marriages – included same-sex marriages – was such good news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1929,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,16],"tags":[107],"class_list":["post-24857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-guest-columns","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1929"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24857\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}