NY Dem Sees Warren as Obama’s Concession to Party’s Anti-gay Wing
New York's Democratic state Sen. Ruben Diaz, Sr. has made the news once again. Diaz, along with fellow Democrats state Sen. Carl Kruger, and state Sen.-elect Pedro Espada, Jr., have been referred to as a "gang of three" looking to prevent the pro-marriage equality state Sen. Malcolm Smith from assuming leadership of the New York Senate unless Smith promises not to bring a bill to extend marriage equality to New York's gay and lesbian families to the Senate floor for a vote.
The bill has already been approved by the New York State Assembly. Under leadership of Republican Joseph Bruno, the bill has not yet been allowed to come to a Senate vote.
It is expected that if the bill were to be approved by the state Senate, Governor David Paterson, a longtime advocate of GLBT equality, would sign it into law.
Following a court decision that upheld New York's long tradition of honoring marriages performed elsewhere, even of similar marriages would not be offered in New York, Paterson's office earlier this year instructed state bureaucracies to treat same-sex married couples who wed in jurisdictions where marriage equality is legal the same as mixed-gender married couples.
In a Dec. 22 article, the New York Daily News reported that Diaz had sent out a statement in support of President-Elect Barack Obama's choice of mega-church pastor Rick Warren, an evangelical leader, who worked to repeal marriage equality in California, to deliver the invocation at Obama's inauguration.
In his statement, Diaz praised Obama for making the Democratic party more inclusive for Democrats who are more religiously and socially conservative.
Read the statement, "Obama has sent a message to the world that 'Yes We Can' have a Democratic Party where everyone should be included."
Added Diaz, "It has been the belief that the Democratic Party is owned exclusively by certain groups, and if you do not believe in nor follow the ideology of these groups and their agendas, then you will be a registered outcast."
Diaz went on, "To some people, if you oppose homosexual marriage and abortion, you are not a Democrat and you are certainly not be invited to deliver an inaugural invocation."
Added the state senator, "By rejecting the call to dis-invite Reverend Warren and by welcoming him to deliver the inauguration ceremony's invocation in Washington, DC, Barack Obama has sent a message of inclusion," with that message being "that we should be welcome all the time, not only to be used when they want our votes, support and participation in coalitions to benefit others."
Declared Diaz, "The time has come for a change.
"The Democratic Party should not be a party of only two issues: Abortion and homosexual marriage.
"Everybody should be accepted: Orthodox Jews, Evangelical Christians, Catholics, Muslims, and those with religious beliefs that oppose abortion and homosexual marriage."
Repeated the release, "YES WE CAN!"
Wrote Diaz, "Thank you, President-Elect Obama for setting the example."