New York City Councilman Ritchie Torres made history today when he announced his bid for a seat in New York’s House of Representatives.
The 31-year-old Democrat from the Bronx is the first openly gay man to hold elected office in the New York City borough earlier this year. If elected to the House of Representatives, he would become the first openly gay member of Congress who is either Black or Latinx.
Now, here’s the thing. Torres opponent is a 76-year-old homophobic Pentecostal minister.
New York City Councilman Rubén Díaz Sr. is also running for the seat. Díaz is a long-time opponent of marriage equality who once attended a protest of an AIDS march dressed in drag as part of a “March for Morality” saying that supporting a cure for AIDS teaches children that “homosexuality is ok, that it is not immoral or sinful behavior.”
Earlier this year, Díaz told Spanish-language radio station that New York City is being “controlled by the homosexual community.”
But Díaz, who’s granddaughter is a lesbian, insists he’s not a homophobe.
“My family is full of gays,” he told the New York Times. “I don’t believe in gay marriage, but that doesn’t mean I hate people.”
Torres begs to differ.
“To have an elected official attack the quality and dignity of LGBT people sends a message to young people who are thinking of taking their own life as they struggle with their identity,” he told the Times.
Watch Torres’ campaign kickoff video below.
Cam
Diaz was one of those burned out ancient Dems who voted along with the Republicans to keep LGBT marriage illegal in New York State until a wave election knocked most of them out of office and let it pass. Time for him to be retired.
JaredMacBride
Graham, you should only write about things you understand, which is clearly not politics. Torres is running for the US House Of Representatives. New York does not have a House of Representatives. And Torres is from the Bronx, not “the New York City borough.” And you wonder why people have trouble believing what you write.
botolani
yah, the Bronx is a borough of New York City…maybe you should take your own advice and not comment about people not understanding things which you don’t understand. Just a thought
JaredMacBride
@botolani – too bad you never learned to read.
notasjw
Too bad he’s not white if he were we could call him evil!
PoetDaddy
Who’s not white, Ruben Diaz Sr? I don’t care what color he is, I’ll call him evil, because to me that’s what homophobes are. I hope Ritchie Torres wins big time!
Kangol2
@notasjw, why are you so obsessed with “whiteness”? You keep bringing it up over and over. Are you seeking the help you need?
davidjohng
I hope he wins. He seems like a very positive, strong member of the LGBT community out there for the bigger community(the Bronx). He feels and looks like the future.
Kangol2
Richie Torres is a dynamic City Councilor who’s very proactive in local issues, and very pro-community. He’d be a good legislator at whatever level he chose, and probably a good mayor of NYC, though the next NYC mayor could very likely be a gay man of color, Corey Johnson, the City Council speaker, but I digress.
At any rate, as Jared notes, Richie Torres is running for the US House of Representatives, to replace Rep. José Serrano (D-NY), not the New York State House. And he’s running against a notoriously anti-gay, right-leaning Democratic City Councilman, Ruben Díaz Sr., whose son, Ruben Díaz Jr., is actually not homophobic and is the Bronx Borough president.
@JaredMcBride, Graham’s sentence about the Bronx is a bit tortuous, but his reference to “the New York City borough” does refer to the Bronx, which he mentions in the sentence’s opening words. Graham is incorrect in suggesting that Torres was elected “earlier this year”; he was first elected in 2014. If elected to the US House he would be the first openly gay Black and Latinx US Congressperson, though the late, great Barbara Jordan of Texas was outed in her obituary.
Last point: he’s gorgeous. Just had to point that out.
Aires the Ram
If he’s a good legislator who is proactive with local issues, good on him. To bad the embarrassment AOC isn’t any of that. Sounds like he actually does his job that he was duly elected to do, from what I can read about him. BUT, if ANYBODY in that district votes for him simply BECAUSE he’s gay, and not for what type of legislator he is and what his political positions are, then they are stupid.
bill
You go girl friend! NY needs young people of color!
Aires the Ram
“Girlfriend”??? He’s a man, he’s got a di*ck & balls, and it just so happens that he is homosexual. You people in NYC don’t need “more people of color” in politics, you need more people who actually help the citizens in their districts, moving the economics of their district FORWARD. Doesn’t matter what “color” they are. If you think THAT matters, then that is the definition of “racism”.
Kangol2
@AiresTheRam, “girlfriend” is an in-group term of affection among some gay men. It’s a gay, vernacular idiom and not to be taken literally. You can have full male genitalia and be a “best girlfriend,” etc. Also, as Ritchie Torres has pointed out, affordable housing is a major crisis in NYC, so any economic advancement has to take than into account. One of the issues with the Amazon HQ was the almost complete lack of real discussion about the behemoth’s adverse cost effects on the neighborhood where Bezos planned to locate it, or on NYC housing and other prices as well, which are already piercing the stratosphere. In his race against Díaz, race and ethnicity will probably be minimal factors if they emerge as the top candidates, since both are Afrolatinx; it is going to be Torres’s political positions (Díaz Sr. is extremely homophobic) and his youth that will probably be the deciding factors.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Diaz is one of the most vile, abhorrent, noxious sub human pieces if thit to ever disgrace an elected post…A mean spirited vile smcubag who already has his ticket to the darkest corner of Hell procured, processed, and punched….
I don’t live in the district but will gladly be donating to the Torres campaign…
Chrisk
I think the only reason Diaz keeps getting elected is that he speaks most of his constituents language. Plus, the phony religious bit. It’s English he never mastered though.