New York City Councilman Ruben Diaz Sr. is in major trouble. In fact, he may be expelled from the NYC Council.  

What exactly did Councilman Diaz do? Did he assault someone, commit larceny or voter fraud?

Not exactly. He said the following, which is in a sense being treated worse than the above crimes:

“The City Council is controlled by the homosexual community.”

Diaz also stated that openly-gay council speaker Corey Johnson is married to a man.

In response, Johnson demanded that Diaz apologize for his “homophobic” remarks, which “have no place in New York City.”

Even Diaz’ own son, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., reprimanded his father for his grave sin, tweeting:

“NYC is a place where we celebrate our diversity and inclusivity. The LGBTQ community is unequivocally an essential voice in our City. @revrubendiaz’s sentiments are antagonistic, quarrelsome and wholly unnecessary. He should apologize.”

Thankfully, Diaz Sr. is sticking to his guns. Although he is otherwise a liberal Democrat, he is anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage -- something incredibly rare these days in the Democratic Party. Diaz Sr., unlike almost all other Democrats, has not drunk the Kool-Aid.

The New York Times reported further:

“The City Council is already exploring disciplinary action against him: The Committee on Standards and Ethics, at the behest of several Council members who have complained, will open an investigation. If Mr. Díaz is found guilty of “disorderly conduct,” which could include violating “policies against discrimination and harassment,” Mr. Díaz could be reprimanded, censured, fined or expelled from the City Council by a two-thirds vote of its members.

“The Council speaker, Corey Johnson, who is gay and H.I.V. positive, used his personal Twitter account to note that he shared the “anger and pain” of Mr. Díaz’s colleagues about “deeply offensive comments” about the gay community.

“We are currently reviewing all potential disciplinary scenarios,” Mr. Johnson said in a statement. “Nothing is off the table.”

“My personal viewpoint is that he should resign. It’s unacceptable. It’s Trumpian,..”

Speaker Johnson’s hysteria is misplaced. Rather than be upset at Diaz for a comment, maybe he should take a look at himself and the truth of Diaz’ words. To be precise:

• The New York City Council has a “Gay, Lesbian and Transgender Caucus”, in which Mr. Johnson’s name prominently appears.
• Two of the last three New York City Council speakers were openly homosexual.
• The Council, through its powerful LGBT Caucus, has thus far passed almost 20 pro-homosexual measures.          

Did Johnson ever consider that Diaz’ point might be correct, rather than mindlessly attacking it?

This scenario is symptomatic of something far deeper that is happening in America, in which the homosexual community attempts to muzzle and bully its opponents into submission -- or else. The sad truth is that Diaz Sr. and other Americans who hold to some notion of Biblical values are basically not permitted by the pro-gay lobby to express their opinion on these issues.  

Case in point: New Jersey Democratic Senator Cory Booker recently questioned judicial nominee Neomi Rao, incessantly pushing her to disclose whether she felt that homosexual relationships are sinful. Booker was obviously trying to interject the homosexual agenda into the judiciary selection process, maintaining that it was not acceptable to harbor unfavorable beliefs about gay relationships.

I am proud that the Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV) condemned Booker for this. CJV President Rabbi Pesach Lerner remarked:

“It is outrageous that Senator Booker would use religion as a weapon with which to exclude an eminently well-qualified candidate from public service, and not only because factoring in a candidate’s personal religious views violates Article VI of the Constitution. The Bible expressly declares homosexual activity to be sinful, so the Senator would apparently disqualify Moses himself, the original judge, from holding that office -- much less anyone in our day who adheres to the same Biblical values that our nation’s founding fathers held dear.”

In contemporary politically-correct society, when one is not embracing something in the liberal agenda, he is audaciously assigned a contrived mental disorder, in order to deflect and stifle his opinion. One who opposes the gay agenda is “homophobic”; one who is perceived as being against Islam suffers from the malady of “Islamophobia”.

It is high time for the homosexual lobby to stop the intimidation and bullying tactics and take a good look in the mirror. It just might be that “homophobia” could then become a legitimate term, reflective of decent people who have been menaced and victimized by the homosexual community solely on the basis of the former’s principled beliefs and innocuous expressions.     

Avrohom Gordimer is chairman of the Rabbinic Circle at Coalition for Jewish Values, a public policy institute reflecting traditional Jewish thought. He serves on the editorial board of Jewish Action magazine, is a staff writer for the Cross-Currents website, and is a frequent contributor to Israel National News, Yated Ne'eman, and a host of other publications. He is a member of the Rabbinical Council of America and the New York Bar, and he works as an account executive at a large Jewish organization based in Manhattan. The views expressed in the above article are solely those of the writer.