Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. |MTA.GOV
Ruben Diaz, Jr., the Bronx borough president and son of State Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr., has voiced his support for marriage equality.
“After considerable deliberation and introspection,” he said, “I support marriage equality.”
The need for so much deliberation came, no doubt, from his own father’s staunchly anti-gay posture going back decades. Diaz, Sr., vehemently opposed the marriage equality law enacted in New York in 2011, the only Democrat among 30 in the State Senate to vote no. He was also, as Gay City News previously reported, the only Democrat on the Senate’s Judiciary Committee to join with GOP members in 2010 to block the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act from getting a floor vote.
Despite his father’s history, the borough president tied his change of heart to the influence of family members and staff, specifically citing the examples of his chief of staff, Paul Del Duca, and his niece, Erica Diaz. Why should they, Diaz, Jr., said in a March 27 release, “be denied the same rights of any other loving and committed couple?”
The borough president’s statement came in response to the Defense of Marriage Act going before the US Supreme Court.
“I strongly believe that this law should be struck down,” he said.
