Portrait

I dislike many New York State senators -- my own not least. But I have long had an especial dislike for Rubén Díaz Sr. of the Bronx. If you are not familiar with the gentleman, read this NYT profile, and marvel.

Every Sunday morning, the deep, melodious voice of State Senator Rubén Díaz Sr rumbles across the congregation at his Bronx church. On weekdays, it echoes across the Senate chamber as he rails against Medicaid cuts or abortion. Earlier this year, it enthralled thousands at a boisterous rally against same-sex marriage.

But ask him about the gay people in his own life, and Mr. Díaz’s voice grows quiet. His smile vanishes.

Two of his brothers are gay, he murmurs, one of them recently deceased. So is a granddaughter. There is an old friend who works for him in the Senate. And a former campaign aide.

“I love them. I love them,” says Mr. Díaz, who grew up one of 17 children in Puerto Rico. “But I don’t believe in what they are doing. They are my brothers. They are my family.”

His voice rises again. “So how could I be a homophobe?”

Right. And moving forward:

He was forced to resign from the city’s Civilian Complaint Review Board years ago for suggesting that the Gay Games would encourage homosexuality and spread H.I.V. In 2003, he sued the city to shut down a high school for gay and transgender students.

As advocates push for a vote on same-sex marriage in the State Senate on Tuesday, Mr. Díaz is again speaking out, arguing that last week’s election results show that the tide has turned against allowing gay people to wed.

And, given the Democrats’ fragile majority — the party has 32 senators to the Republicans’ 30 — Mr. Díaz’s stubbornness often yields results.

“The people of the nation don’t want gay marriage,” Mr. Díaz said in an interview Monday. “They didn’t want it in California; they didn’t want it in Maine. And the people of upstate New York, after what happened to the candidate in the 23rd Congressional District, they sent a message they don’t want gay marriage. Forget about it. People don’t want it.”

Mr. Díaz argued that the bill legalizing same-sex marriage should not be allowed to come to the floor, saying the Legislature has more important issues to attend to.

And the best part:

“My religion doesn’t allow me to dance,” he said. “But that does not mean I don’t go to the party. My religion doesn’t allow me to drink. But that doesn’t mean I can’t hang around with my friends. My religion is against gay marriage. It means, I don’t agree with what you do. But let’s go out. Let’s go to the movies. Let’s be friends.”

For those of Our Readership who ever wondered why Deep Blue NY is having trouble with this rather straightforward social justice issue, well, now you know. And knowing is half the battle, insofar as knowing just exactly who the main douchebags are is always pretty crucial.

Comments

[Evan]

Yep, he's a douchebag!

That is so much worse than the pastor in Maine who readily admitted that he didn't know any gay people and learned all about them from Tony Perkins and the other dicks at the American Family Association.

It's a special kind of stupid bigot, to be able to rattle off three family members who are gay, which, to my mind, equals three chances to get right on the issue, and yet still spend a large portion of your career fighting against those family members.

It's getting trite, but perhaps that's because it's so common: Could the fourth family member he's fighting against be...himself?

Inquiring minds, you know...

[LittlePig]

“My religion doesn’t allow me to dance,”

They have Baptists in the Bronx???

[actor212]

Pig,

They sure do! Apparently, you've never heard of the Rev Calvin Butts, the kingmaker in Harlem and pastor of the Abbysinian Baptist Church.

Thers, as odious as Diaz is, and he's just south on the Monserrate scale for my tastes, this is at least a position I can respect, even if I don't agree with him.

But here's the thing: what's his alternative? As Evan points out, he's had a lifetime of chances to ponder how to keep gays from being crapped on left and right, so he must have some alternative thinking to offer.

If not, then he should do what Mario Cuomo did, which was essentially oppose abortion personally, but recognize that not everyone is living his life and holds his values, and enough do not that he should not stand in the way of progress.

[ice9]

I read that profile. At first found him to be ugly, then odious, then just sad. Perhaps most troubling, of course, is the continued support among black, hispanic, and other minority small- and medium-church organizations for anti-gay bigotry. In fact, one of the most effective bits of right-wing political nuance has been keeping evangelical blacks and other minorities from absorbing the parallel between gay rights and civil rights. This means they effectively cultivate Christians to 1. act against the Bible, especially Christ's great commandments (few are better at the Bible than the black churches, who have a history of debunking and resisting racist interpretations);
2. Forget the use of the Bible to justify slavery and racism;
3. Act as oppressors against gays yet gain no power or value; and 4. make their beds openly with the worst of the American religious hierarchies, including the Mormons, who were proud institutional bigots as recently as the late '70's, and the very Southern denominations (and political rumps) that still openly despise blacks, not least of those the President.

The black vote made the difference in Prop 8 in California.

We place a lot of stock in the person-to-person paradigm shift. Even Archie Bunker came around when he was forced to go from the general (coloreds) to the specific (Sammy Davis, Jr.). But it does not work every time, which is why the worst of the bigotry is in the still-entrenched notion that the majority rules in cases such as this.

ice9

[Mr. Wonderful]

My religion doesn't allow me to dance, so that's why I've introduced a bill outlawing dancing. My religion doesn't allow me to drink, which is why I've called for the re-introduction of Prohibition. Now let's be friends and go to the movies!

[Jay B.]

The black vote made the difference in Prop 8 in California.

No it didn't.

But if you want to believe that, how can we pin it on the niggers in Maine?

[daphne]

Meet Mr. Diaz, the best argument against organized religion, like, ever.

[zhak]

"The People" are a bunch of amorphous bigots who are too stupid to think for themselves and thus easy marks for fear mongerers. (And that, btw, is the reason the Maine vote went the way it did -- out-of-state interest groups scaring people that a No vote would mean their kids were going to be taught Teh Gay in schools. Sad. These same people want the govt to keep their hands off Medicare. Cough.)

All this stuff -- true equality for women, gays, minorities, all the Not-White-Males out there -- should have happened long ago. We were raised to think our country was better than anybody else's, and we failed miserably to prove it.

[gil mann]

We should amend the Constitution to separate church and state one of these days.

Diaz Jr's nowhere near as horrid (though I get the feeling he's one of those "that's okay, God believes in you types), so I guess that's your long arc bending toward justice or whatever.