Gay Marriage Protests, You’re Friends with the Westboro Baptist Church

On July 24^th, State Senator Ruben Diaz said, “Today we start the battle! Today we start the war!” and I was like, “who is Ruben Diaz?”

For all those who don’t know, July 24^th was the first day gay marriage licenses began being issued in New York State. Almost 3,000 people turned out to protest people they don’t know being in love while almost 830 couples were issued licenses.


Also, Ruben Diaz is the State Senator from Bronx County in New York, the only Democrat to vote against the marriage equality bill and a believer that because the state waived the 24 hour waiting period to file their marriage licenses (presumably because they had already waited 40 years to do it) all the issued licenses were "illegal and criminal." So he is suing the state over it. A Pentecostal minister, he is taking God's word (queers, you go home with no marriage license!) to the street. And everyone knows that is the only thing God ever said.

God obviously isn't interested in teaching people math because between the 1,700-ish people who got married + guests = more proponents than bigots. There were so many people there that there were extra people who just held umbrellas and blocked protesters.

While Ruben “I’m-friends-with-the-Westboro-Baptist-Church” Diaz gets his queer gun; we will be on our honeymoons. Good luck with your lawsuit.

Also, his whole idea about annulling all gay marriages performed in New York puts him front and center for the Congressman with the worst priorities ever. Hey, Senator Diaz, why don’t you find a way to lower the dropout rate in your district. I would make fun of it using up to date numbers, but when searching the county health rankings, your county's was unlisted like you forgot to turn it in, or something.

Actually, I am being too hard on the man.

His congressional district has the second highest, not the highest, teen pregnancy rate. A victory with about (only!) 15,000 more than the average county in New York State. A whopping 55% of people age 25 or older have graduated from high school and that’s more than half. The average income of Bronx county is only twenty thousand dollars less than the median for New York and your district only doubles the average poverty rate at 28% compared to 14%.

Fighting gay marriage is what you need to be doing, Senator Diaz, because if people you don’t know are doing things that you can’t see and don’t affect you, it should be fought tooth, nail and sinker because you feel like God thinks its icky. You are doing the people’s work.


Hey, you know what, run for President. With that laser-like focus on the important issues, you are sure to win.

In better news, my friend Erinn Peet-Lukes was on the radio and she was great (and not friends with the Westboro Baptist Church!) She was on the Bob Rivers Show, check it out!