Ricky Martin touts ‘LGBT for Hillary’ group

Latin pop star Ricky Martin is reaching out to LGBT voters and allies for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Martin on Saturday announced the launch of “LGBT for Hillary” in an email, asking interested voters to join the coalition on Clinton’s campaign website and donate.

{mosads}”Growing up in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, I never dreamed that I would one day be a proud, out gay father of two beautiful little boys, in a country where marriage equality was the law of the land. Now, that’s just an average day — that’s what real progress is,” Martin wrote.  

“Hillary knows this, and she’s not going to stop fighting. But in order to protect and build on the progress we’ve made, we need to win this election.”

Martin said supporters can join the LGBT initiative with a donation of at least $1 toward Clinton’s campaign.

Martin, 43, came out as gay in 2010 and had twin sons through a surrogate mother in 2008. 

Clinton has been criticized in liberal circles for her previous opposition to gay marriage.

Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, signed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) into law in 1996, defining marriage for federal purposes as between one man and one woman.

That law was struck down in the landmark 2013 Supreme Court decision U.S. v. Windsor.

The former first lady, who came out in favor of gay marriage in 2013 after more than a decade of opposing it, said the motivation for the legislation was to prevent a constitutional amendment codifying the traditional view of marriage into law.

– Bradford Richardson contributed

Updated at 6:50 p.m.