Hold On: Anti-Gay Marriage Pol Actually Feels "Blessed" LGBT Group Is Moving In

Image via Towleroad

Yesterday, the Post reported that Bronx Pride, the Bronx's biggest LGBT group, was moving into the Ruben Diaz Sr. Gardens building, a residential-commercial space funded by State Senator Diaz's non-profit and named after him. And given his extremely anti-gay marriage stance, the Post quoted a source who said that Diaz was "furious. It’s such a direct shot at him." But Diaz tells us that's not true—he actually feels "honored" and "blessed" to have the group in the building and is only furious that the Post reporter didn't include anything he told her!

After receiving a press release from Diaz's office, we called the State Senator, who told us, "I'm a big guy. I can take criticism... But I wish that the reporter was fair and honest. I think she wanted me to say bad things." Of Bronx Pride's move, Diaz, who is a Pentecostal minister, said, "I'm not angry. I feel blessed... It's a testament to the work I'm doing [to let everyone know that] the Bronx is open for business."

When we asked Diaz about whether he would pursue a lawsuit against NY's same-sex marriage law—a law he called "criminal" back in the summer—he said, "That's over." Still, Diaz was happy that anti-gay marriage group, the National Organization for Marriage had "given me opportunities to robo-call and send mailings to the voters in the 9th Congressional District about my support for Bob Turner's pro-family values... I expect that the Hispanic vote in this race will be influential in determining who wins, and since the Hispanic community has traditional family values, I believe they will vote for Bob Turner because of his position against gay marriage."

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By Jen Chung in News on November 14, 2011 11:44 AM

Comments [rss]

Mordicai

He's a big guy! He can handle a little creative criticism, like "your dangerously bigoted views hurt actual people, but you continue to preach hate in order to capitalize on the fears of the ignorant." He's can take it & dish it out, where "take it" is "abide by anti-discrimination laws under duress" & "dish it out" is "champion intolerant hate in the legislature."

Dan

drdanfee. The Rev. Diaz has demonstrably flat earth beliefs about LGBT folks and nature, with the result that he often repeats the Against Nature or Unnatural trope. The only way I can imagine him hanging on to this theme so tritely, so tightly, is if he has as simplistic a view of how Nature operates as he seems to have when he explicates God's upset that anybody is not straight. If he were just an everyday neighbor one could sidestep his impoverished habit of just avoiding the six or seven decades of peer-reviewed science which inform more neutral, and even LGBT-positive empirical views. However, the Reverend purports to be a leader, as well as a key spokesperson for God - so as the saying goes, we must hold him to an even higher standard. He is flunking peer review at this point, and Latino communities are catching on to the simple, obvious fact that we can care about family and children without having to be the Reverend's sort of antigay preacher. Alas. Lord have mercy.

Inis Magrath

The article characterizes Diaz as having an, "extremely anti-gay marriage stance." It's worse than that. Diaz has an extremely anti-gay stance. Period. He hates gay people, he hates the LGBT community.