New York became just the sixth state in the country to legalize same-sex marriage, when the state senate passed a bill in June approving the measure.
33 state senators cast votes supporting the hotly debated measure while 29 opposed it.
The measure met with strikingly different reactions from two elected officials who represent Hunts Point and Longwood.
Congressman José E. Serrano called passage of the legislation in New York a “victory for justice of the highest order,” adding, “We now join the ranks of states that offer full marriage rights to our LGBT brothers and sisters.”
Serrano added that “New York State has now moved back to the forefront of the gay rights movement, which is where we are meant to be as the place where it was born decades ago,” and said “We must continue to be vigilant against discrimination towards the LGBT community – especially among the young and vulnerable.”
State senator Democratic Ruben Diaz Sr., who serves New York’s 32nd district, which includes Hunts Point and Longwood in Albany, vigorously opposed the measure.
About 50 pastors and evangelicals rallied in front of Diaz Sr.’s headquarters on E. 163rd St. in Longwood to throw their support behind him, and to voice their displeasure with the bill. Members of the New York Hispanic Clergy Organization, of which Diaz Sr. serves as president, announced they would encourage New York voters to punish officials who supported the bill in future elections by voting them out of office.
“It is wrong to believe Ruben Diaz is alone,” said Bronx Mennonite Reverend Nicolas Angustia, and added that passage of the same-sex marriage bill would “stop the growth of our nation.”
Diaz Sr., the only Democrat to vote against the bill, conceded before the final vote was tallied that the measure was likely to pass, and accused fellow Republicans of capitulating to political pressure.
“Because the Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo is making the Republicans do what the Democrats could not do when they were in the majority, the Republicans are bending to the Democratic Governor and gay marriage is inevitable in the State of New York,” he said.
Same-sex marriage in New York will go into effect on July 24.