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"I was so nervous that morning that I threw up. I spoke against him across the street, directly within his view. But then I approached a police officer who escorted me to the podium where he spoke. My grandfather introduced me to the crowd and kissed me on the forehead. 'This is my granddaughter," he said. 'She chose her way of life, but I chose God's way, but I love her.' Grandpa even called me after the rally, to say that he was proud of me for 'respectfully speaking up for what you believe in.' You cannot tell someone that you love them and stay silent when people call for their death. 'Love' is empty when you say someone's life isn't natural. He could quietly vote 'no' if that's what he believes is right. But I want him to know that every word he utters hurts his own blood." - Erica Diaz, openly lesbian granddaughter of NY Sen. Ruben Diaz, recounting her awkward appearance at his Bronx hate rally last month.

The red-caped loons of the Catholic Society for the Defense of Tradition have posted the below recap of their day leading the anti-gay hate parade into the Bronx. As you may have noted from my Sunday slideshow, the average age of these brainwashed zombies seems to be around 20. And in case this is your first time hearing about them, you should know that these nutjobs believe that society contains a "naturally elite class" that should be running a strictly and exclusively Catholic government in the United States. They claim to have 120,000 members.

Days after ripping off my Bronx hate rally video and posting it as theirs, NOM has issued its own production video of Sunday's event.

(Via- Good As You)

Rather than simply post my video of Brian Brown speaking at yesterday's Bronx hate rally, NOM has ripped the clip, retitled it, and posted it without attribution to their official YouTube channel. Nice Christian values, NOMbies. (Good As You's Jeremy Hooper had to tip me on this, as NOM blocked me from subscribing to their channel long ago.)

Yesterday Village Voice reporter Steven Thrasher spoke to Sen. Ruben Diaz' 22 year-old lesbian granddaughter, Erica Diaz, about her expulsion from the military under DADT and her relationship with the elder Diaz. Erica is facing strong criticism across the LGBT blogosphere today for her decision to join Sen. Diaz on the rally's stage. Hit the above link for Thrasher's excellent break-down of the entire day.

Igor Volsky at Think Progress reports the words of Rev. Ariel Torres Ortega of Radio Visión Cristiana, who spoke at Sen. Ruben Diaz' hate rally in the Bronx yesterday. Ortega's speech was being translated into English from the podium, hence the odd wording below.

"Committing sexual acts between man and man. And receiving the retribution of the things that they have done from straying away. And because they did not take God in count. God gave them over to reprimand their mind to do things that are not right, being against all justice, fornication, perversity, aberrations, malignity…those who practice such things are worthy to death, not only do they do it, but those who also practice it. God bless this earth. That is the word of God."

The maker of this clip follows the Fox report with some photos from the slideshow I posted last night. It's interesting that Fox describes the crowd as only numbering in the hundreds, when most media outlets reported attendance at around 2500.

(Tipped by JMG reader Andy)

And the crowd goes wild!

(Video by Andres Duque at Blabbeando)

Below you'll find a 130-photo slideshow of today's hate rally in the Bronx, including some images of the good guys in the counter-protesting area. Full-screen versions are here and permission is granted for reproduction anywhere.

With his lies being interpreted into Spanish by a screaming pastor, NOM president Brian Brown warned the crowd that "kids as young as kindergarten are taught in Massachusetts that their parents are bigots because they believe marriage is the union of a man and a woman." Brown then exhorted the crowd to believe that there is no actual separation of church and state. The irony of being told to "stand up for civil rights" was completely lost on the Bible-waving thousands.

NOTE: My apologies for the occasional shakiness of this clip, it was starting to rain a bit harder and the other guys in the press pit were jostling me while they covered their equipment.

At today's hate rally, the above woman repeatedly attempted to mount the Bronx Courthouse steps while waving two creepy lifelike dolls over her head and shouting something-something (in Spanish) about man/woman, boy/girl, Jeebus, etc etc. Security forced her back into the crowd several times and their frustration with her antics was one of the few comic moments of an ugly, ugly day. As you can see, organizers finally assigned somebody to guard her full-time.

Erica Diaz, NY Sen. Ruben Diaz' openly lesbian 22 year-old granddaughter and a victim of DADT, held a press conference across from the Bronx Courthouse this afternoon shortly before the hate marchers arrived. Reading from her iPhone, Erica denounced the fact that she is denied the right to marry her girlfriend, with whom she posed for the cameras shortly after her statement. However at the end of the rally, Sen. Diaz brought Erica up onto the stage for some uncomfortable hugging as he boasted that he really truly loves all the gay members of his family. (The elder Diaz also has two gay brothers.) The crowd went wild. Those of us in the press area cringed at this entire scene, which we all agreed was a PR win for the haters. Erica then returned to the counter-protesters area across the square, which this year was populated primarily by young Latinas. Fewer than 50-60 counter-protesters turned up in all.

Thanks to the rain, attendance at NY Sen. Ruben Diaz' anti-gay hate rally was far, far below the 20,000 evangelicals who crowded the streets of midtown Manhattan in 2009. Still, this year's event was much more of an ecumenical hate scene, with the red-caped Catholic loons leading the parade, followed closely by a contingent of Ultra-Orthodox Jews. NOM president Brian Brown arrived arm-in-arm with his BFF in bigotry, Ruben Diaz himself. Here's a few photos, I'll post a big slideshow and some video shortly.

What's really pouring on Ruben Diaz is the 100% chance of thunderstorms for today's hate rally.

"Don't confront them with yelling and screaming, that just plays into NOM's hands." Wise words, for those us who remember NOM's relentless usage of photos and video of angry activists on last summer's bus tour.

Radio Cristiana was the primary backer of Diaz' 2009 rally in Manhattan, which attracted 20,000 Hispanic evangelicals, most of whom arrived via out of state church buses. This year's rally could be even larger with the co-sponsorship of NOM.

Let's hope for a torrential downpour on the hate rally in the Bronx and sunny skies over Central Park for the AIDS Walk.

(Via - Good As You)