Dueling Rallies (and Families) Fighting For Gay Marriage In New York

Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr., who is a longtime opponent to gay marriage, led a rally in favor of traditional marriage in the Bronx.

That isn't all that surprising given that he and several of his fellow members of the State Senate oppose gay marriage in any formulation (civil unions/marriage).

However, his granddaughter has taken umbrage with his position. Erica Diaz has a personal stake in all this:

Erica Diaz, 22, a gay woman who is the senator’s granddaughter, wanted her grandfather’s supporters to know whom they were opposing.

“I am a Diaz; my family is very political,” said Ms. Diaz, whose pastel pink shirt stood in contrast to her grandfather’s bright white cowboy suit. “It is in my blood to stand up for what I believe in — regardless of who I am up against.”

Ms. Diaz’s supporters, far smaller than the raucous rally on the courthouse steps, numbered a couple of dozen, including her mother, sister and girlfriend.

They spun rainbow umbrellas in the rain and shouted through a bullhorn until a police officer said they did not have the proper permit.

It was years ago that Ms. Diaz told her grandfather that she was gay. The experience, she said, was a positive one. “He told me that regardless of my decision, he is my grandfather, and he loves me, and he respects me,” she recalled. “I respect the fact he believes what he believes.”

and she believes that her grandfather
still loves her, but he doesn't want her to get married to her companion.

At the same time, no one apparently wants to take the civil union approach. That's a compromise approach utilized in other states, but which doesn't have support of either the gay rights community or the Catholic Church, which sees this as simply marriage under a different guise.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has made this a top priority for resolution in the current legislative session..

On the Odious Defense Of Hiram Monserrate

New York State Senator Hiram Monserrate was convicted by a Bronx jury of committing assault on his then girlfriend. Yet, despite a bipartisan chorus of calls for Monserrate to resign, a Democrat has come forward to claim that this is a witchhunt based on Monserrate's race, and that's just the half of it.

State Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. told Fox 5 News that many of the officials telling Monserrate to resign are white, while Monserrate is Hispanic. Diaz said that Monserrate was convicted of a misdemeanor for trying to force her to go to the hospital to get treatment, not for the slashing itself.

After his trial Monserrate indicted he would not resign, but did not comment about the latest developments involving members of his own party.

Diaz seems to buy into defense claims that Monserrate was trying to help his girlfriend get to the hospital, when the video shows Monserrate grabbing and yanking and pulling the woman forcefully from the apartment building.

It was largely on the basis of that video that he was convicted of assaulting his girlfriend by yanking her out of the apartment building. That's not helping his girlfriend as Diaz would like to claim. Instead, Diaz frames this as an attempt to submarine a non-white member of the State Senate.



Fellow State Senator Bill Perkins (who is a Democrat and is black) has also called on Monserrate to step down.

The arrest and conviction have nothing to do with race and everything to do with Monserrate's thuggish and criminal actions. The jury saw through this. It's time to see through Diaz as well.