GENDA Dies In NY Senate Committee Thanks To Arch Homophobe Ruben Diaz

Today the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act failed to move out of the New York Senate Judiciary Committee by ONE vote. And who was the lone dissenting Democratic vote that killed the bill? Our old nemesis, the evil Sen. Ruben Diaz. Via press release from the Empire State Pride Agenda:

Today the Senate Judiciary Committee took up the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA) and failed to move it forward by a vote of 11-12. All the Republican Senators on the Committee voted against it, as did Senator Ruben Diaz as the lone Democrat vote in dissent. Some senators raised concerns about the use of bathrooms and other gender-segregated facilities, and a number of senators who voted against the bill expressed a willingness to support it if this issue could be sufficiently addressed. Committee Chair John Sampson promised to take these concerns back to the prime sponsor of the bill, Senator Tom Duane, for discussion.

Diaz, an evangelical pastor representing the Bronx, has a decades-long record of opposing virtually all LGBT rights bills. In 2008 he orchestrated the largest anti-gay rally in the history of New York when he led 10,000 Hispanic evangelicals in a gay marriage protest outside the Manhattan office of Gov. David Paterson. Diaz claims he is a not a homophobe because he has TWO gay brothers whom he "loves very much." Diaz showed his brothers that love in 1994 when he tried to block NYC from hosting the Gay Games because the event would "bring AIDS to New York."