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Rubén Díaz Falsifies NY Archbishop’s Comments To Attack Gay Community

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Why did New York State Senator and Reverend Rubén Díaz, Sr. falsify New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan’s article on marriage to attack the gay community? Guest post by New York City-based novelist and freelance journalist Scott Rose, who frequently writes about human rights.


New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan, who was last year elected President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote an article, titled “Marriage: the core of every civilization,” which begins by alleging that Dolan was once protested, when exiting from a mass in Milwaukee, for being overly accepting of homosexuals.

“Outside of St. John the Evangelist Cathedral in Milwaukee, where I, as archbishop, was celebrating Sunday Mass on an otherwise magnificent Wisconsin autumn day, were a couple dozen very vocal protestors, representing some off-brand denomination, shouting vicious chants and holding hateful signs with words I thought had gone the way of burning-crosses and white hoods.

 

In his press release Thursday, the extremely anti-gay New York State Senator and Reverend Rubén Díaz falsely characterized the contents of Dolan’s article – which itself already constituted ill-intentioned anti-equality political propaganda – by stating that the protesters about whom Dolan had written were for, not against gay rights. Diaz then repeats Dolan’s phrase about “burning crosses and white hoods” clearly to imply that equality supporters are like the Ku Klux Klan.


 

“This frenzied group, taunting the people as they left Mass, were rabid in criticizing the Catholic Church, especially her bishops, for our teaching that homosexuals deserve dignity and respect.

“To be more precise, this group was yelling at us because, they objected, the Catholic Church was so friendly, welcoming, and defensive of gay (they used other foul words) people. They waved placards explicitly quoting and condemning #2358 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which affirms the dignity of those with same-sex attraction, and warns against any form of prejudice, hatred, or unjust discrimination against them, and insists that homosexual acts, not persons, are not in conformity with God’s design.”

Dolan seems to have intended to convey the idea that though he unyieldingly opposes equality, he “loves” and “respects” gay people. Dolan emphasized his alleged disapproval of those anti-gay protestors by writing that they “were shouting vicious chants and holding hateful signs with words I thought had gone the way of burning-crosses and white hoods.” (This reporter finds no documentation of the anti-gay protest of which Dolan alleges having been a target. Dolan was the Archbishop of Milwaukee from 2002 to 2009.)

In his press release Thursday, the extremely anti-gay New York State Senator and Reverend Rubén Díaz falsely characterized the contents of Dolan’s article – which itself already constituted ill-intentioned anti-equality political propaganda – by stating that the protesters about whom Dolan had written were for, not against gay rights. Diaz then repeats Dolan’s phrase about “burning crosses and white hoods” clearly to imply that equality supporters are like the Ku Klux Klan.

“I read on the Archbishop’s blog that he has been greeted with a similar backlash of contempt by many who want our marriage laws changed,” New York State Senator and Reverend Rubén Díaz writes in his press release bragging that he had “accepted New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan’s invitation to record an episode of his weekly radio show, A Conversation with the Archbishop.”

“For example, he wrote about a group that waited for him after a Mass in Wisconsin shouting vicious chants and holding hateful signs with words I thought had gone the way of burning-crosses and white hoods.

“It’s horrible to see the bullying tactics and uncivil discourse that continue to be showcased in public and online just to get votes to change our marriage laws.”

Senator Diaz Thursday was contacted with the request that Senator Diaz acknowledge that he published an untruth, a lie, about Archbishop Dolan’s blog. As of publication time, New York State Senator and Reverend Rubén Díaz has not responded.

Diaz’s malignant implied likening of equality supporters to a hate group, the Ku Klux Klan, on the basis of a lie about Dolan’s blog, is particularly heinous. In addition to acknowledging that he lied about Archbishop Dolan’s blog, Diaz should 1) apologize for the lie and 2) leave his press release in this matter as it stands on his own blog, but publish an update to it acknowledging the inaccuracy and explicitly stating that equality supporters are not comparable to the Ku Klux Klan.

The Archdiocese of New York, too, was contacted for a statement about how Diaz told a lie about Dolan’s blog in order to smear equality supporters as being akin to the KKK. In its reply, the Archdiocese sidestepped the issue, by merely referring to Dolan’s blog, and saying that Diaz should be contacted for a statement.

The problem with the Archdiocese’s condescending sidestepping of the issue, though, is that Thursday, Dolan taped a segment of his weekly A conversation with the Archbishop radio show with Senator Diaz. The topic of discussion was to be same sex marriage legislation. If Dolan now does not state that New York State Senator and Reverend Rubén Díaz should publicly acknowledge having misrepresented Dolan’s blog, the appearance that Dolan and Diaz may have colluded on the propagandistic uses of the “burning crosses and white hoods” phrase is only strengthened.

Dolan is saying “Who me?” and New York State Senator and Reverend Rubén Díaz is ignoring the criticism altogether, evidently hoping that additionally inflaming anti-gay bigotry in his followers will be sufficient to help him succeed in perpetuating sexual orientation apartheid in New York.

(Image: Archbishop Timothy Dolan, left. New York State Senator and Reverend Rubén Díaz, right.)


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Here are nine of the worst moments from Wednesday night’s debate.

The debate itself got off to a rough start right from the beginning.

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Vivek Ramasway got into a heated argument with Nikki Haley, leading the former Trump UN Ambassador to tell him, “Honestly, every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber for what you say.”


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South Carolina Senator Tim Scott and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, as CNN’s Manu Raju noted were “one-time allies,” after “Haley appointed Scott to his Senate seat,” until they started “going at it at [the] debate.”

“Talk about someone who has never seen a federal dollar she doesn’t like,” Scott charged. “Bring it, Tim,” Haley replied before they got into a fight about curtains.

Senator Scott declared, “Black families survived slavery, we survived poll taxes and literacy tests, we survived discrimination being woven into the laws of our country. What was hard to survive was [President] Johnson’s Great Society, where they decided to take the Black father out of the household to get a check in the mail.”

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, currently leading over everyone on stage, said practically nothing for the first 15 minutes. He may have said the least of all the candidates on stage Wednesday night. But he denounced Donald Trump for being “missing in action.”

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Donald Trump, again refusing to participate in a GOP debate, teased out the fate of every candidate on stage Wednesday night: he will choose none of them as his vice presidential running mate.

The ex-president who is facing 91 felony charges in four criminal cases across three jurisdictions and is now also facing the dissolution of his business empire, brought up the running mate question around the same time the debate on Fox News was kicking off.

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“They’re all running for a job,” he continued, as the audience began to boo.

“They want to be in the, they’ll do anything,” he continued. “Secretary of something.”

“They even say VP, I don’t know,” Trump said. “Does anybody see any VP in the group? I don’t think so.”

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September 27, 2023

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Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) became defensive and accusatory after repeatedly being unable to answer a reporter’s questions in a press conference Wednesday, held to announce what House Republicans claim is “evidence” against President Joe Biden.

A shortened version of the video posted by the news organization Heartland Signal went viral, garnering nearly one million views in under three hours on the social media platform X.

“Mr. Chairman, question about the timing of all of this,” began an NBC News reporter identified by Mediaite as Ryan Nobles. “You’re talking about a two-tiered system of justice. If I’m not mistaken, on August 7, 2020 Bill Barr was the attorney general and Donald Trump was the president, so explain to me where the two-tiered system of justice comes into play. And then the WhatsApp message you have, I believe, is dated June 6, 2017. Joe Biden is not vice president or even a candidate for president at that time. So where is the direct connection to some sort of criminal malfeasance within these two pieces of evidence?”

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Chairman Smith could not only not answer any part of those questions, he appeared to forget a portion of them.

“Well, I think the facts speak for themselves,” Smith replied. “There’s over 700 pages of examples of, where people should be very concerned, when you’re talking about um, ah, – what was your first question?”

Smith went on to say, “It doesn’t matter who’s in the White House,” after being reminded them President at that time was Donald Trump. “We need to make sure that the Department of Justice works for all people and doesn’t treat those who are politically connected or wealthy much differently. And unfortunately, we have several examples that came forward by the two IRS whistleblowers, that proves that people are treated differently because they’re politically connected.”

“Are you suggesting that Joe Biden being the president now, is unfairly treating Donald Trump in his indictment?” Nobles asked.

Again, Smith did not answer the question.

“What I’m talking about is the 700 pages that we have before us, which is all the information that came from the IRS whistleblowers, and that’s what we’re releasing right now,” Smith replied, again not answering Nobles’ question. “And I’ll tell you, I would encourage everyone in this room to look at those 700 pages. If you think it’s okay, with what’s in it, then we live on two different planets.”

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“Can you explain the timing of the August 6 WhatsApp message? Why is that evidence of some wrongdoing?” Nobles continued..

“I’m not an expert on the timeline,” Smith admitted, before pivoting to say, “I would love to have President Biden and his family to tell us about all the timelines, because it’s really, really unfortunate that we see so many meetings and so many phone calls that involved around official activity that the Vice President has been participating in, and then big sums of money follows later –”

“But he’s not the president or the vice president at that time. Where, where’s the wrongdoing? He wasn’t even a candidate for president,” Nobles pointed out.

“He was a candidate – ” Smith claimed.

“On August 6 –” Nobles began before Smith interrupted him.

“So apparently apparent – what source are you with?” Chairman Smith asked Noble.

“I’m with NBC,” the reporter replied.

“So apparently, you’ll never believe us,” Smith charged.

“I’m asking you a very direct question,” Nobles explained. “You presented a piece of evidence that you say came on August 6, 2017, that demonstrates that Joe Biden was using political influence to help his son. He wasn’t a political figure at that time. The first WhatsApp message you put up, where yo talk about the brand,” Nobles explained. “I’m completely open minded about this. I’m asking you specifically, how does that demonstrate that there was some sort of political influence being put over him, if at that time, he is not a political – he’s not an elected official?”

“I’m definitely not going to pinpoint one item,” Chairman Smith said defensively.

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“You presented it!” Nobles acclaimed. “It was the first thing that you brought up.”

“So apparently, you don’t agree with that. So report that you disagree with it. I’ll take the next question. Yes?” Smith said, refusing to answer any of Nobles’ questions.

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