What You Should Know

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW

By Senator Rev. Rubén Díaz

32nd Senatorial District, Bronx County, New York

Tel. 718-991-3161

Gay marriage has backfired on the Democratic Party.

You should know that since Governor Andrew Cuomo pushed for gay marriage in the State of New York and convinced the Democratic Party in the Assembly and the Senate to follow his lead to legalize gay marriage, the Democratic Party in New York City has not won a single victory.

Starting with the defeat of David Weprin by Bob Turner for the Congressional seat vacated by Anthony Weiner, and most recently with the embarrassing defeat of Lew Fidler by David Storobin for the Senate seat vacated by Carl Kruger, the Democratic Party lost. In each special election, the Democratic candidate was expected to win handily given the composition of registered democrats in each district, and given the low turnout expected in special elections.

You can spin this any which way you want, but the fact of the matter remains that gay marriage has played a major role in the outcome of each of these elections. The support that the State Senate Democratic Conference gave for gay marriage has backfired on them to the point that as each day passes, it is more and more difficult and less and less possible for us to get back into the Senate Majority.

In one of my previous columns, I suggested that if Senator Adriano Espaillat wants to run for Congress and win, he should contact the gay community to start raising atleast $1 million dollars for his campaign. I am afraid that Senator Espaillat may be subject to a backlash by members of the community especially Hispanics for his vote in favor of gay marriage.

For a time, the Democratic Party was key in New York City politics, and it was virtually impossible for a Republican to win a seat in the State legislature in New York City. That was before gay marriage.

It seems to me, that after the gay marriage vote, the Democratic Party has been losing steam and suffering humiliating defeats.

The Democratic Party cannot afford to allow for the defeat of any more candidates – especially those who voted in of favor legalizing gay marriage.

This has shown to be destructive for the Democratic Party and I hope that elected officials in other states are paying attention.

Now we can all wait and see what happens to the future of the four Republicans who supported gay marriage when it was forced to the floor of the Senate for a vote, because the way I see things, The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) and its Executive Director, Brian Brown has been active and instrumental in contributing and supporting with financial resources those individuals who run against gay marriage supporters. So far, Brian Brown has been very effective and it might happen, that the four republicans, might lose their Senate seats solely because of their vote on gay marriage.

Ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, friends and foes: fasten your seat belts, because I am afraid that it's going to be a very bumpy ride.

I am State Senator Rev. Rubén Díaz and this is what you should know.