NYS: Revernd Ruben Diaz, Sr. will introduce anti-gay marriage referendum today

One of the striking things about yesterday's El Diario La Prensa editorial backing marriage rights for same-sex couples was their explicit rejection of efforts by New York State Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr. to derail any legislation granting same-sex couples the rights afforded to married couples or to sponsor bills that discriminate against same-sex couples (the Senator also happens to be an ordained minister).

From the editorial which I quoted in full yesterday:

Rev. Diaz and others are supposedly not for denying rights to gays and lesbians but believe that marriage should be between a man and woman. Yet, it’s this very discriminatory position that serves to exclude lesbian and gay couples from accessing rights, benefits and treatment that heterosexuals take for granted.

This use of religious beliefs to block basic civil rights undermines the separation of church and state in this nation.

In today's edition, El Diario La Prensa runs an interview with the not so good Reverend in which he once again spouts off his mouth on his favorite topic: The gays ("Reverend Diaz: Gay marriage goes to referendum" by Jose Acosta).

In it, Diaz announces that he will introduce a State Senate bill today pushing for a statewide referendum on same-sex marriage:

I do not think it is appropriate that a group of lawmakers are the ones to decide whether or not gay marriage is approved in New York. I, as a legislator, do not want to impose my will, and this is why I am asking that there be a referendum on the issue as was done in California, and that the 20 million inhabitants of the State of New York be the ones who decide in a democratic election

OMG, thank you for protecting the electorate from efforts to grant a much-discriminated minority equal rights, Senator! Makes you wonder if the Reverend would feel the same about it if he felt there was enough support for a legislative ban on same-sex marriages!

But how about that pesky separation of church and state? hm...

I am a pastor and cannot, with my vote, bring homosexual marriage to the State of New York. My dissent would come to an end if my colleagues support the bill I am submitting

Well, so much for that! At least he never ceases to disappoint... in a bad way, of course.

As for the chances of a referendum moving forward in New York State, here is how Paul Schindler puts it in last week's Gay City News:

Despite the press play that proposal got across the state and on some blog sites that usually show greater political acumen, the referendum idea is, in fact, a non-starter. New York voters do not currently have the right to initiate such ballot questions, and though Senate Republicans have at times flirted with passing a law to enable them to, they have not seriously advanced the concept, nor are the Assembly Democrats about to surrender their prerogatives in this way.

The only other way to put the question to the voters would be for the Legislature, in two successive sessions, to approve a constitutional amendment referendum. That approach, too, has no support among Democrats, in either the Assembly or the Senate.

Update:

• The Gang of Four... no, Three... hm, Two... er, None? (Nov. 24, 2008)

Related:

• The Center of Attention (Elizabeth Benjamin's The Daily Politics)

Previously:

• Anti-gay rally by Hispanic religious leaders is a flop (Sept. 8, 2008)

Breaking News: McGhee guilty of 2nd degree murder in killing of Edgar Garzon

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Eddie Garzon. I'm not sure when the 35mm picture above was taken but it looks like the New York City harbor and it must have been close to the time at which the young Colombian man decided to move to the United States to seek new opportunities.

Of course, Eddie is no longer with us. On August 15th, 2001, as he walked home from spending a night at the gay bars of Roosevelt Avenue with friends, he was viciously attacked and left for dead in the dark of night on a peaceful tree-lined block lined with medium-sized apartment buildings. Eddie, who I knew as a friend, would never regain consciousness. He remained in a coma for two weeks and a half - and passed away on September 4th, 2001.

Originally, I was going to write about the memorial mass and vigil that his family organized on Sunday evening to observe the 7th anniversary of his passing (that's Leonor and Armando Garzon, right, during the vigil).

Amazingly, more than fifty people showed up - between friends of the family and those who knew Eddie, political leaders and those who had heard of his death but never met him.

It also turned out to be a cozier affair than the memorials of years past in part because Leonor let those present stand up and tell stories about her son which she said helped her to celebrate her son's life even if she was hearing some of these stories for the first time.

Movingly, at the end of the mass, Leonor turned to her husband and thanked him publicly, for being next to her for so many years, for giving her three such beautiful children and for giving her the joy of being a mother which had sustained her through tragic of circumstances.

In the most heartbreaking moment of the night, Armando stood up and, in a broken voice, thanked those of us who were present and said he had never been able to be as strong as his wife and that sometimes the thought of losing his son was too painful to even vocalize. They embraced each other to applause and tears before we all filed out and joined them in the candlelight vigil. I have more photos of the vigil here.

On 9/11 (2008), a guilty verdict: This morning I woke up to a live broadcast of some who lost loved ones at the World Trade Center reading the names of the lost. As with Eddie's murder, it has been seven years since the attacks and - while some have moved on - I couldn't help but to catch myself becoming emotional and, for lack of a better word, glad that the memorial was being broadcast live as a raw reminder of that awful September morning.

Following Eddie's murder and the 9/11 attacks one memory that remains indelible is that the weekly gay news publication Gay City News (then called LGNY) ran a special double-cover issue: News of Eddie's murder was on one side and a photo of openly gay NYFD chaplain Mychal Judge, who died in the 9/11 attacks, was on the other.

Among all publications, the team behind LGNY/GCN have assiduously, tenaciously followed the case of Eddie's murder over the years, so it was not a surprise that GCN reporter Duncan Osbourne was the first one to e-mail me today to tell me that a jury had just declared John L. McGhee guilty of murder in the 2nd degree earlier today (just as former GCN reporter Michael Meenan - then writing for The New York Times - tipped me off to McGhee's 2006 arrest).

You see, even as the Garzon family was observing the anniversary of their son's death on Sunday, a jury was deciding whether a man was guilty of his murder for the second time (a first trial ended when the judge declared a mistrial). Today, in surprisingly quick fashion, they declared him guilty (see this and this report from Gay City News)

In my posts about Eddie I have tried to be careful not to link up 9/11 and his murder to avoid insulting any family member who mourns those who died in the Twin Towers but today I am re-posting an October 3, 2001 Newsday editorial in its entirety (it's no longer available online):

Don't Let Jackson Heights Gay Murder Be Forgotten

Seven days before thousands of New Yorkers perished at the hands of suicide hijackers, Edgar Garzon met an equally senseless fate. He died from wounds sustained in a bias attack in Jackson Heights. He had been beaten into a coma with a baseball bat or lead pipe three weeks earlier - because he was gay.

The police, who are actively pursuing leads in the case, have not forgotten about Garzon. Let's hope no one else has either, especially public officials whose duty is to remind residents that brutally attacking people because of their sexual orientation is outrageous and unacceptable.

A Colombia native, Garzon settled in Queens' largest gay community in Jackson Heights. Some residents believe that the borough, no matter how tolerant of its wide diversity, is more susceptible to this kind of bias attack than a lot of people might assume.

In fact, another bias killing horrified the gay community 11 years before, when Julio Rivera was beaten to death a block away from where Garzon was attacked in mid-August. That high-profile murder helped galvanize the community and heighten its social and political influence, culminating this year with the opening of the borough's first two gay community centers – in Corona and Woodside - and an openly gay candidate for City Council, Jimmy Van Bramer, finishing second in the multi-candidate District 25 race.

For now, there's a $15,000 reward for information leading to Garzon's killers, including $10,000 from the city. Community leaders also hope to reschedule a town-hall meeting with police officials that was originally planned for Sept. 12, a day after the World Trade Center terror attack.

Gay residents' fear and anxiety are just as real today. So it's up to law enforcement and elected officials to put their minds at ease.

That says anything I could say much better than I ever could. The crime was at risk of being forgotten in the wake of 9/11 and it certainly was thanks to efforts from his family, community leaders, political leaders and police detectives that kept Eddie's memory in their hearts that today's verdict was possible.

Related:

• September 11, 2008: Quick murder verdict in 2001 Edgar Garzon slaying in Jackson Heights (Gay City News)
  

Previously:

• July 17, 2008: Key witness vanishes as 2nd Eddie Garzon murder trial approaches
  
• September 5, 2007: Last night's vigil...
  
• September 2, 2007: Six years since the murder of Eddie Garzon...
• July 25, 2007: Judge Declares Mistrial in Eddie Garzon murder case
  
• July 13, 2007: Trial Begins in the Slaying of Edgar Garzon
  
• February 8, 2007: Michael J. Sandy and Edgar Garzon pre-trial hearings underway
  
• October 18, 2006: A Pansy for Edgar Garzon
• September 5, 2006: 5th Annual Memorial Mass and Vigil in honor of Eddie Garzon
  
• July 7, 2006: Gay City News on Eddie Garzon
  
• July 1, 2006: Armando Garzon talks to El Diario La Prensa
• June 30, 2006: New York Times: Stepping off plane, man is arrested in '01 murder
• Part 1: The Attack
• Part 2: COLEGA and Eddie Garzon
• Part 3: So what is, exactly, is a 'hate crime'? (and a prayer)
• Part 4: Eddie Garzon passes on
• Part 5: The Vigil
• Part 6: A Newsday Editorial
• Part 7: A parade of angels
• Part 8: Epilogue

Governor Spitzer: No gay marriage in the next 9.5 weeks

In yesterday's New York Times, Governor Eliot Spitzer addressed his priorities for the two months left in the current legislative session with campaign reform at the top. Not among the priorities, gay marriage, an issue he supported before being elected governor.

This morning The Politicker's Azi Paybarah stopped by a breakfast presentation at Crain's by the Governor in which he spoke of the recent bruising budget fight with the health care industry. At the meeting Spitzer was asked why gay marriage was not listed among his priorities. His response? It's something that is "not likely to be passed in the next ten weeks."

Over at the Daily News Daily Politics Elizabeth Benjamin cuts the time to 9.5 weeks and quotes Spitzer as saying "I am focusing on politics as the art of the possible."

OK, then. How about in 12 weeks? 30? Hm, any forseable time during your tenure as Governor?

Paul Schindler at Gay City News elaborates in an article for today's print edition and says that some leading same-sex marriage advocates and friendly legislators still think that Spitzer will support a same-sex marriage bill sooner than later (if not in the next 9.5 weeks).

Updates: Constable Dupree, Rev. Diaz' money, Larry Kramer challenged

Dupree's troubles: Things for gay Dallas constable Mike Dupree get thornier - according to the Dallas Voice - as the Texas State Attorney General's Office mulls prosecution in a series of charges that have arisen since the Dallas Observer reported last year that the fifty year old man had apparently had his deputies arrest a twenty year old Honduran ex-lover and arranged to have him deported. Santo Gay highlights a more recent Dallas Observer story in which they detect a pattern in the type of guys Dupree goes for and how he gets his way with them.

Rev. Diaz' purse strings: The homophobic Reverend (and State Senator) Ruben Diaz, Sr. hasn't let an FBI probe disturb the way he channels state funding towards projects in which he is directly associated. On April 4, the New York Daily News reported that the recently approved state budget includes two grants worth close to $300K for the Christian Community Benevolent Association.

Reactions to Kramer: Following the ACT UP Wall Street demonstration a week ago Thursday, Gay City News has a cover page story on the rally this week. In the same issue, CHAMP Executive Director Julie Davids has an essay on the role of women in ACT UP throughout the years and Larry Kramer's failiure to aknowledge them in his recent rable-rousing speech.

Over at the New York Blade Paul Varnell argues, in an OpEd piece, that Kramer's speeches are "characterized by substantial exaggerations of fact, hyperbolic rhetoric and a certain amount of vulgarity" and that his most recent statements are incoherent.

PS - By the way, speaking about local gay media, Gay City News also inaugurated it's first webcast this week featuring editor in chief Paul Schindler.

Gay City News: Ongoing debate about hanging of Iranian youth

Today's issue of Gay City News continues to report on the ongoing fissures among activists regarding the hanging last year of two Iranian youths possibly for being gay. It's a fascinating if painful debate that only seems to widen as the days go by. The related articles are as follows:

• The Fog of Debate by Duncan Osbourne
• Iran: Setting the record straight by Doug Ireland (in response to an OpEd by Scott Long last week)
• Letter from the Editor by Paul Schindler
• People-to-people dialogue key to human rights progress by the founders of the Queer Iran Alliance

We had previously written about this when an as of then internal debate on the hangings broke out publicly and after we attended an event at the LGBT Center put together by Human Rights Watch and IGLHRC, among others, on the same day that public demonstrations were happening elsewhere in New York and the world.

Photos: New Yorkers react to Gay Marriage Ruling

Angry thousands at Sheridan Square (on Christopher Street) this evening, speakers included New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Senator Thomas K. Duane, Congressman Anthony Weiner, State Comptroller Alan Hevesi, Assemblymember Dick Gottfried and State Attorney General candidates Sean P. Maloney (who brought along his partner and kids) and Mark Green.

Scenes from today's rally at Sheridan Square protesting this morning's New York State Court of Appeals Decision against the constitutionality of same-sex marriage rights in New York State. Full set of photos here.

Coverage from tomorrow's Gay City News:

• Andy Humm reports on today's rally.
• Editor in Chief Paul Schindler writes the editorial.
• New York Law School Professor Arthur S. Leonard (on my personal blog list on the right) analyzes the ruling.
• Associate Editor Duncan Osbourne on reaction from couples, gay advocates and political leaders.

And from tomorrow's New York Times: An editorial and coverage.

Also, a message I got tonight from Daniel and his partner Curtis on today's ruling (he's pictured above, third one from top):

Dear Friends,

As many of you may already, New York's highest court, the State Court of Appeals, rendered its decision this morning regarding our marriage case. In effect, they ruled that the denial of marriage licenses to same-sex couples was not a constitutional issue and determined that it was a matter for the legislature. The decision was 4 to 2.

Curtis and I are deeply saddened by the decision. While many are hopeful about continuing the fight in the legislature, we believe that our part in the struggle is coming to a close. Our next steps are more personal, be must now go about protecting our relationship as every other same-sex couple in New York State with a patchwork of very expensive legal contracts, wills and proxies. It also puts our desire to adopt children even further on the back burner. Now as it stands, we will have to separately adopt a child. We were hoping that if we won we would actually be able to afford adoption because married couples need only go through one adoption process.

We could go on about the matter, but it is the end of a very difficult day that we just want to be over. Thank you for your support.

Hugs,

Daniel and Curtis

A sad day indeed.

ps - Lavi has more here and pictures here as well (spot me!)
pps - Good as You has video of some of the speakers at the rally here