WASHINGTON (AP) — The Hispanic National Bar Association on Wednesday said it cancelled its 2015 convention in Phoenix over legislation adding protections for people who assert their religious beliefs in refusing service to gays.

The move makes the group one of the first to pull out of Arizona because of the proposed law. President Miguel Alexander Pozo says the group views the controversy as a civil rights issue. “Laws that return us to a darker time in the nation’s history simply cannot be tolerated,” he said in a news release.