CAT SCRATCH FEVER

Witness The Fabulous Catfight Between Joe.My.God. And Senator Ruben Diaz

While Queerty’s no fan of Ruben Diaz, our intense dislike of Mr. Diaz holds but a mere candle to the supernovic loathing that Joe.My.God. editor Joe Jervis reserves for Reverend Diaz. For example, Jervis’ latest article about Mr. Diaz has the following tags: “assholery, bigotry, douchenozzles, evil, fuckweasels.”

Fuckweasel… we’ll have to remember that one.

But Diaz has broken caught wind of Jervis’ special brand of blogging and has used the occasion to paint himself as a Christian of gay hate speech. He even wrote a blog entry about it, to which Jervis responded.

Grab some popcorn and watch the catfight begin!

So first, Senator Reverend Ruben Diaz (yes, Senator Reverend… Diaz’s self-assigned title, not ours… it’s kinda like Uncle Grandpa) wrote this in his essayette entitled, “Unashamed To Be A Christian”:

“Yesterday I received a series of five emails in my Senate account from one person that read like homicidal rantings: “You eat shit. You are shit.” “There is no worse person on Earth than you. God has told me so.” “You worthless pile of human excrement!!!” “I hope you die! I hope you die soon! I’m waiting for you to die!” “Satan would sooner nail a stake through your heart than admit to knowing you. Your very own lover!!!”

“Last Tuesday, a website posted an article titled: ‘Sen. Ruben Douchebag: I Made History.’ The tag labels that follow that online piece are as vulgar as possible. I quote them here not to amplify their vulgarity, but to let people know the ever-growing hatred freely expressed by those who claim to promote tolerance: ‘assholery, batshittery, bigotry, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, douchenozzles, evil, and f***weasels’…

For all intents and purposes I am a stranger to this person, yet for some reason I have his full attention. As a religious leader I thank the Lord that he continues to pay attention to my efforts to spread the Word of God. I hope and pray that since he seems to be a grown man, he will try to no longer promote vulgarity, indecency and hatred online or elsewhere…

After the June 24 vote, so many people who disguise themselves as victims and decry bullies hide behind their computer screens and demonstrate what is called “keyboard courage” by posting hateful and vicious comments about me.”

OK, before we write off Mr. Diaz as your typical woe-is-me hater, you should know that he’s not the only far right conservative to slam Jervis’ work. After Jervis won GLAAD’s first-ever award for Outstanding Blog, Peter LaBarbera, Board Member of the right-wing group Americans For Truth About Homosexuality said:

“So GLADD, a self-described anti-defamation group, gives an award to one of the most vicious, vile and vulgar anti-Christian bigots on the planet and expects to be taken seriously? Hey, while we’re at it why not give Muammar Gaddafi the ‘Humanitarian of the Year’ award. Or how about a Nobel Peace Prize for Barack Oba… Oh, wait….”

Barbera has spent a good part of his adult life focused on homosexual acts. And Jervis, who is a strange fan of Queerty, regularly posts about anti-gay Christianist groups like the American Family Association (a certified hate group) and the anti-gay actions of the Catholic Church.

Make no mistake, the cantankerous Joe Jervis enjoys the sport of provoking Christianists but he only exposes such groups’ hypocritical anti-gay actions—he does not oppose religion in and of itself.

Nevertheless, Jervis responded to Diaz’s essayette in his own post entitled, “Sen. Ruben Diaz: JMG Was MEAN To Me!”:

Diaz, as always you’ve got a lot of nerve to whine like a titty-baby because somebody on the internet was mean to you. What outrageous hypocrisy to hear this from a man who just led thousands and thousands of raging evangelicals through the streets of my city as they waved signs calling for my eternal damnation and gave speeches LITERALLY calling for my murder. Fuck YOU, Ruben Diaz. Fuck you right in the motherfucking ear.

The Jervis and Diaz share in common is their consistency in tone. But The New Civil Rights Movement compared the two men to size up which man is the real bully:

Joe Jervis, aka Joe. My. God., spends his days and nights educating his community and pointing out hypocrisy and hatred on the Right, including that of New York State Senator and Reverend Rubén Díaz. Granted, Jervis uses impolite speech to get his message across at times, but rarely is it undeserved.

[Meanwhile] The other, an elected official, spends his days and nights crossing the line between church and state, attending rallies, like one sponsored by the anti-?marriage group National Organization for Marriage, that included a preacher who proclaimed that gays are “worthy of death,” just minutes before New York State Senator and Reverend Rubén Díaz spoke. Diaz neither acknowledged the hate speech, nor challenged it, nor asked the preacher to apologize to his constituents. In effect, Diaz stood on stage and condoned a call to genocide, without giving it a second thought.

Keep in mind that the National Organization of Marriage has used claims of gay harassment to flout campaign finance disclosure laws in several states, presumably to protect churches and other donors who broke laws to finance the fight against marriage equality. But Jervis’s blog merely points out the obvious—that right-wing religious groups perpetuate an industry of hate much larger than his one-man operation.

Jervis thrives off of such attention and he’s likely keep his claws nice and sharp the next time the Christianist cats come stalking for gay prey.

Don't forget to share:

Help make sure LGBTQ+ stories are being told...

We can't rely on mainstream media to tell our stories. That's why we don't lock Queerty articles behind a paywall. Will you support our mission with a contribution today?

Cancel anytime · Proudly LGBTQ+ owned and operated