Rubén Díaz Sr.

Early life and career

Born in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, Díaz has been a resident of New York City since 1965. Prior to arriving in New York City Díaz had served in the United States Armed Forces beginning in 1960, ultimately obtaining an honorable discharge three years later.

He would go on to graduate with a Bachelor's Degree from Herbert H. Lehman College. Later, in 1978, he became an ordained minister of the Church of God, whose headquarters are located in Cleveland, Tennessee, and describes itself as evangelical and pentecostal. At the same time, Díaz served as Executive Director of the Christian Community Benevolent Association, Inc., and as a pastor at the Christian Community Neighborhood Church.

In 1993, Díaz was appointed to serve on New York City's Civilian Complaint Review Board, and in 1997 he received an honorary doctorate from an evangelical university located in the Dominican Republic.

Díaz expressed anger at Governor Eliot Spitzer after Spitzer reversed course and abandoned his plan to allow illegal immigrants to obtain New York driver's licenses. Díaz said he had been betrayed by Spitzer.

Prior to his election to the State Senate in November 2002, Díaz served on the New York City Council, where he was the only elected member who was also an ordained minister.

In 2010 Díaz was challenged by Carlos "Charlie" Ramos in a Democratic primary campaign. Díaz won the primary by a margin of 79% to 22%. Ramos' campaign complained of a number of polling irregularities, including intimidation of voters, bringing campaign literature into polling sites, and expelling certified poll watchers who worked for Ramos.

Díaz has a son, Rubén Díaz Jr., who currently is the Bronx Borough President.

Gang of Three

Díaz is one of three Democratic Senators, known as the "Gang of Three", who threatened to abandon the Democratic majority elected to the New York State Senate on November 4, 2008. A fourth, Senator-elect Hiram Monserrate, backed out of the group in early November. According to a memorandum leaked to the New York Times in December 2008, the remaining "Gang of Three" tried to use their leverage to have one of them named Senate majority leader and another named chair of the Senate finance committee, and to obtain a guarantee that the Senate would not vote on the issue of same-sex marriage. This deal fell through, and the three reached a compromise with State Senator Malcolm Smith in January 2009, recognizing Smith as Senate president and majority leader.

In 2009, Rubén Díaz stated his intention to officiate at Hiram Monserrate and Karla Giraldo's wedding.

Abortion and stem cell research

In 2008, Díaz was described as "the state senate's sole pro-life Democrat." (In fact, then-Senator George Onorato of Queens was also pro-life, according to Democrats for Life New York; and then-Sen. William Stachowski also self-identified as pro-life.) Díaz has taken prominent public positions against expanding access to abortion and against state funding of embryonic stem cell research.

In a March 2005 speech on the State Senate floor, Díaz made the following remarks: "Abortion is the American Holocaust.... The comparison is plain: six million Jews were exterminated by Hitler in Germany; Almost 48 million babies have been exterminated in the abortion clinics of America. We have simply been in the killing for a longer period of time than Hitler.... Hitler used the ashes of the Jews to make bars of soap. In America, we are selling fetal tissue to be used in: the manufacture of cosmetics as well as for medical research.... Do not point your finger at Hitler; we are worse." Díaz again compared abortion to the Holocaust in May 2012, drawing criticism from the Anti-Defamation League. In 2008, when a colleague proposed legislation that would expand abortion rights in New York, Díaz described the bill as "one of the most dangerous and radical pieces of proposed legislation in New York State that I have ever seen."

Opposition to same-sex marriage

In 2007, as his party, led by Governor Eliot Spitzer and Lt. Governor David Paterson, sought to pass same-sex marriage legislation, Díaz was a vocal opponent and was highly critical of Democratic support for the bill. Díaz's opposition to same-sex marriage continued in 2008, when he vowed to vote against same-sex marriage legislation and participated (along with hundreds of clergy) in a "Power in the Pulpit" rally held by New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms in the Legislative Office Building to oppose same-sex marriage; at the rally, Díaz was reportedly presented with over 15,000 petitions in support of continuing the state's opposite-sex definition of civil marriage. In May 2009, Díaz led a rally against same-sex marriage in front of the New York City office of Governor David Paterson; the rally was attended by an estimated 20,000 participants.

While Díaz has been an outspoken opponent of same-sex marriage, a November 2009 New York Times states that Díaz "love[s]" his gay and lesbian relatives, but "[doesn't] believe in what they are doing." The same article quoted Díaz's openly gay chief counsel as stating that Díaz "is a true believer in Christian values, in treating people the way you want to be treated."

On December 2, 2009, Díaz voted against same-sex marriage legislation, which failed to pass the Senate.

On May 15, 2011, Díaz led a rally of same-sex marriage opponents in the Bronx., while his granddaughter Erica Diaz, who is openly lesbian, led a counterprotest. During Díaz's speech, his granddaughter came up on the stage with him, and Díaz hugged and kissed her and said, "This is my granddaughter. I love her. I love her. I love her. I respect her decisions. She does what she wants." Erica subsequently stated that "You cannot tell someone that you love them and stay silent when people call for their death. 'Love' is empty when you say someone's life isn't natural." Díaz has reported receiving numerous death threats, and a New York gay bar said it would hold a "Fuck Ruben Diaz" event.

On June 24, 2011, Díaz once again voted against same-sex marriage legislation; however, this time the measure successfully passed in the Senate by a vote of 33-29. Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the bill minutes after the passage, making New York the sixth state in the United States to legalize same-sex marriage. The law went into effect on July 24, 2011, thirty days after it was signed, per state law.

Opposition to Gay Games

In 1994, while on the Civilian Complaint Review Board, Díaz was critical of the city hosting the Gay Games, claiming that doing so would lead to an increase in AIDS cases and to wider acceptance of homosexuality by young people. Díaz wrote that hosting the Games would lead children "to conclude that if there are so many gay and lesbian athletes then there is nothing wrong, nor any risks involved." The other members of the Board issued a unanimous rebuke of Díaz's comments.

Criticism of Harvey Milk School policy

In 2003, Díaz filed a lawsuit to stop the expansion of the Harvey Milk School, claiming that the school infringed upon the rights of heterosexual students. The lawsuit was settled in 2006 after the school agreed not to discriminate against heterosexual students and not to restrict admission to students who identify as LGBT, and after the City of New York agreed that the school would be open to all students.