Richard E. Barnes, Executive Director of the New York State Catholic Conference has posted a Note On Intolerance on Facebook. He laments the awful treatment that poor Senator Diaz has received from the gay community.
But that was small potatoes compared to the hate speech Rev. Diaz is getting. Death threats, real ones. The vilest filth directed at him that you can imagine. It is now reported, in a popular political blog that all policy-makers read in Albany, that the “F** Ruben Diaz Festival” will be held soon in Brooklyn, where winners of the “F** Ruben Diaz: Gay Erotica Featuring NYC’s Number One Bigot” writing contest will entertain themselves reading their dirty stories to each other, mocking this minister of the Gospel. And this is all known to the press and in the halls of the Capitol. So where is the outrage in the media? Where is the cry for tolerance and justice for Rev. Diaz against these hate purveyors? The answer, sadly, is that there is no outcry. Are they saving it for after something truly awful happens to this good man? Until the hate that is being incited boils over into violent behavior?
Yes, the gay community is mocking "this minister of the Gospel." But not nearly as effectively as he mocks himself, masquerading as a man of God while holding hate rallies.
I'd like to turn Mr. Barnes' question back on himself and ask, where is your own outrage and cry for tolerance when Rev. Diaz invited special guest Rev. Ariel Torres Ortega of Radio Visión Cristiana to speak at his rally in the Bronx last month? As Diaz looked on, Ortega riled against "committing sexual acts between man and man. And receiving the retribution of the things that they have done from straying away." And then he delivered this gem at 1:35 mark:
“Those who practice such things
are worthy to death.”
Video from ThinkProgress.
Curiously missing from Mr. Barnes "cry for tolerance" is any mention of Rev. Diaz's part in fomenting hatred and violence toward LGBT people. Diaz himself gave an TV interview just days ago where he displayed just how insane he is with hatred for gays, and compared being gay with being a drug addict.
Nevermind that the Southern Poverty Law Center has looked at the statistics and concluded:
The bottom line: Homosexuals are far more likely than any other minority group in the United States to be victimized by violent hate crime.
Apparently
gays getting brutally assaulted on the streets of Diaz's own borough isn't anything that keeps Mr Barnes awake.
Poor Mr. Barnes laments:
We are unjustly called “haters” and “bigots” by those who have carefully framed their advocacy strategy.
I'm sorry, if you're holding rallies where your invited speakers are calling for the death of other groups of people, you are a hater. If you're rushing to the defense of such people, you're not much better.