Gay Erotica Contest Targets Sen. Díaz

Ruben Diaz Sr., the most outspoken opponent of marriage equality in the New York state senate, is the subject of a gay erotica contest that calls for entries to "fuck Ruben Diaz."

The New York Observer reports on the contest, called Fuck Ruben Diaz: Gay Erotica Featuring NYC's Number One Bigot!, for entries of erotica that feature the Democratic state senator from the Bronx. Winning submissions will be read in Brooklyn on June 11.

According to the call for entries from The New Gay NY, "So all you LGBT litterateurs (and allies, of course) pick up your pens and plug in your laptops -- if a fool is our theme, let satire be our song. Imagine a day in the life of the Bronx's most prominent Pentecostal minister. Is he downtown scoring poppers? Is he rehearsing his latest screed in his bathroom mirror? Is he waking up in a tangle of hard man-bodies after a raging orgy? Don't think you have to take the closet case angle though, feel free to put Ruben in whatever ridiculous scenario you want -- think Onion headline material -- 'Ruben Diaz Sprains Ankle, Loses Faith in God', 'Ruben Diaz Tired of Wife's "Meatloaf Mondays"', 'Ruben Diaz Gives Impassioned Anti-Gay Speech to his Co-Op Board', or, I don't know, 'Ruben Diaz in the MI6: Killing for Queen and Country.'"

The Observer reports that Diaz, a Pentecostal minister, responded to the contest by saying, "As a Christian, of course, I love those who hate me and I will continue to pray for their souls."

Diaz, whose gay relatives include two brothers and a granddaughter, remains a favorite target of colorful protests. Earlier this month, the activist group Queer Rising dressed a cardboard cutout of the senator in drag to raise money during AIDS Walk, during which time Diaz had scheduled a protest against marriage equality featuring Brian Brown from the National Organization for Marriage.

Despite all the attention showered on him, Diaz is not a focus of the intense lobbying effort to pass the marriage equality bill in the state senate before June 20. Considered an intractable opponent, he is not among the three undecided Democratic senators and handful of Republicans who could make the difference for the bill.