Today’s Gay Pride Parade will be a special one for certain after Friday night’s historic vote by the NYS legislature to legalize same sex marriage.
I am ecstatic today for many reasons.
I am happy that New York State, my home town, is still in time to be pioneering in this movement for marriage equality. In a time in America where divorce is more common than marriage, the fact that so many want to marry and cannot do so legally is shameful. We must applaud the bravery of Governor Andrew Cuomo on this issue.
I am happy that one of the first weddings in NYS – God willing – will be in my own back yard for a couple who have been together for 36 years and who demonstrate to me the power of love, the commitment to be loved and the meaning of commitment.
I am extremely proud of my editorial team at El Diario. It is a group of young and talented journalists and multimedia professionals who are not intimidated by the legacy of this brand, but courageously and rightly take it to new levels, to a new day and to increasing audiences.
We can never compare our struggles to those who have loved in the shadows, whose parents died without ever hearing them say "I’m gay".
But this newspaper, this brand, was targeted with a boycott for its commitment to what we viewed as a civil rights issue. To have individuals want to put a 98 year old institution out of business because they disagree with us and millions of New Yorkers, is disconcerting. But the result of that call was an outpouring of support from families and activists across the tri-state area, many of whom could not read one word of Spanish and still wanted to subscribe to El Diario to make sure that our independent editorial line was protected.
And today is special for me because my daughter will be marching in her first Gay Pride Parade with the enthusiasm of a young person whose generation is open and welcoming. In coming out this year, she found warmth and support among her friends and family. This is how it should be. We turn over to them a society made better because we came through; a community empowered because we fought and a legacy of love. Mucho, mucho amor.
Today’s Gay Pride Parade will be a special one for certain after Friday night’s historic vote by the NYS legislature to legalize same sex marriage.
I am ecstatic today for many reasons.
I am happy that New York State, my home town, is still in time to be pioneering in this movement for marriage equality. In a time in America where divorce is more common than marriage, the fact that so many want to marry and cannot do so legally is shameful. We must applaud the bravery of Governor Andrew Cuomo on this issue.
I am happy that one of the first weddings in NYS – God willing – will be in my own back yard for a couple who have been together for 36 years and who demonstrate to me the power of love, the commitment to be loved and the meaning of commitment.
I am extremely proud of my editorial team at El Diario. It is a group of young and talented journalists and multimedia professionals who are not intimidated by the legacy of this brand, but courageously and rightly take it to new levels, to a new day and to increasing audiences.
We can never compare our struggles to those who have loved in the shadows, whose parents died without ever hearing them say "I’m gay".
But this newspaper, this brand, was targeted with a boycott for its commitment to what we viewed as a civil rights issue. To have individuals want to put a 98 year old institution out of business because they disagree with us and millions of New Yorkers, is disconcerting. But the result of that call was an outpouring of support from families and activists across the tri-state area, many of whom could not read one word of Spanish and still wanted to subscribe to El Diario to make sure that our independent editorial line was protected.
