Twice in one week advocates of same-sex marriage gathered to protest the recent 38-24 defeat of the bill in Albany. This time however Senator Hiram Monserrate became the sole target of their ire.
“The Senator is out of touch with his constituency,” said District 34 Assemblymember Michael DenDekker on Saturday, December 12, when he and over 50 supporters of same-sex marriage gathered in Jackson Heights. “The three Assemblymembers that represent his constituents have either multi-sponsored or co-sponsored the legislation. And the community has spoken.”
Emphasized by the diverse group of community residents and elected officials that protested Monserrate’s vote was that the neighborhoods of Woodside and Jackson Heights have the largest Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community outside of Manhattan, and in the last general election, elected two homosexual men to represent them in the City Council.
“It’s overwhelmingly the way the constituents feel about this issue and I don’t know why the Senator denied us the rights that we expected from him,” said DenDekker, who in a previous interview with The Queens Courier, steered cleared from discussing his position on Monserrate particularly as the Senator’s criminal assault trial got underway. However, DenDekker said that voting against gay marriage on Wednesday, December 2 – and the Senator’s misdemeanor conviction – “put the nail in the coffin.”
One of four Queens Democrats to vote ‘No,’ Monserrate said in a televised interview on local news station NY1 on Wednesday, December 9 that he based his vote on the calls he received from constituents, a majority who asked him not to support the legislation. The Senator said he did not receive any calls from Daniel Dromm or James Van Bremer, the two recently elected openly-gay council members, who represent parts of his district.
The Senator said he would continue to back legal protections LGBT couples.
“That’s unbelievable that he would say that. That’s just another one of his lies,” said Dromm, on the corner of 92 Street and Roosevelt Avenue where the protest began. “Everybody reached out to him. I had a conversation with his Deputy Chief of Staff as late as November 19 at the Lesbian and Gay Democratic Club dinner and we lobbied him. And his Deputy Chief of Staff stood up at that meeting and said that he has the ear of the Senator and alluded to the fact that the Senator would probably vote for it.”
According to Dromm, Monserrate the Empire State Pride agenda has, on paper, a questionnaire where Senator Monserrate committed himself to vote for marriage equality.
“When it came time to vote for it, he turned around and voted against it. That’s a betrayal and we are not going to forget it,” said Dromm. “We are here to begin the process of ousting him from office.”
One of the founders of G MAG, a local Queens Latino LGBT magazine, Cesar Galves said that he had also tried to reach out to Monserrate.
“I tried to communicate with Monserrate three times and all three times I received a negative response,” said Galves. “I have sent [his office] four emails and in the last email [they] told me he didn’t want to discuss gay marriage nor discuss the rights of this community.”
“If he denies the rights to the homosexual community he can deny the rights of any other community as well,” he said.
The protest, which began on 92nd Street and Roosevelt Avenue, continued on to Junction and Northern Boulevards, and finished in front of the Senator’s office. Assemblymember Jose Peralta, who announced his run against Monserrate for the State Senate in 2010, joined the marchers.
Along the way, pedestrians stopped and watched as the marchers went by. From where he stood in front of a dental office, Raul from Jackson Heights opined that he felt human beings should have the right to do what they want with their lives.
“Why not? If it’s their choice, why not?” he said. “I don’t support anyone who is against the rights of each person.”
One of the protestors and veteran of Jackson Heights politics, Steven Moyano, had once supported Monserrate but had now changed his position.
“I believe that this will affect his campaign against Peralta,” said Moyano, adding that as a straight male he saw this as connected with the civil rights movement. “There are a few other factors that have occurred to him and I think that this pretty much tops it.”
“There are no more supporters left of him,” he said.
