New York state Senator Ruben Diaz Sr.
trapped himself in one of his own arguments against the legalization
of gay marriage.
Diaz, also a Pentecostal minister, is
the Senate's most vociferous opponent of Governor Andrew Cuomo's
proposal to make New York the sixth state to allow gay and lesbian
couples to marry.
After headlining a Sunday rally last
month against the legislation, Diaz told The New York Times
that he would not attend the wedding of his 22-year-old lesbian
granddaughter Naomi Torres, who was booted out of the Navy for
violating the military's policy against openly gay troops, known as
“Don't Ask, Don't Tell.”
In an interview with NY1's Spanish
language affiliate, Diaz told Juan Manuel Benitez, host of the
network's Pura Politica (Pure Politics), that
homosexuality “should not exist” because it's unnatural, that
being gay is choice and that Christians are being persecuted – all
claims he's made before.
When Benitez asked, “You think that
homosexuals one day wake up and decide, 'Today, I am going to fall in
love with someone of the same sex?'” Diaz answered: “I think, I
think, I think that, I think that, I think that homosexual conduct –
because there have been homosexuals that have changed their conduct.”
Benitez then asked Diaz if being gay
was a choice, then could he fall in love with a man.
“I could,” Diaz answered, then
added, “Well, I don't know if I would be capable of that, but one
could make the case.”
“One could make the case that
tomorrow they will get up with an atrophied mind, different, and will
change their thing. … Listen, I came out of drugs.”
“I came out of drugs, and one day I
changed my mind and said, no more. I got out of drugs, and here I
am.”
“So being homosexual is like a drug
addict?” Benitez asked.
“No, I'm just comparing for you how
one can one day change his mind, because I one day was, and you keep
wanting to find the twists and turns, and tomorrow the blogs will be
saying, look at what he said, look at how he compared... but what I
am saying is that I was homosex... look, now you have me all [mixed
up]. I was a drug addict and left the military with a drug addiction.
And one day, my mind changed and I no longer was a drug addict. But I
was not born a drug addict. I was not born a drug addict.”
(Read
the complete transcript at gay blog PamsHouseBlend.com.)