Hiram Monserrate, who was expelled from the State Senate after being convicted of assaulting his girlfriend, was defeated on Tuesday by Jos?© R. Peralta in a special election in Queens for Mr. Monserrate’ former seat.

Peralta won with 66 percent of the vote and Monserrate got 27 percent. The Republican candidate, Robert Beltrani came in third with 7 percent.

It was wonderful to see the abusive, anti-gay bigot go down in flames. Knowing that his lack of morality and character were a major liability, Monserrate tried to make this race about marriage equality. The girlfriend beater laughably positioned himself as a defender of the family and insulted LGBT people.

Empire State Pride Agenda, Queer Rising, Marriage Equality New York, the Stonewall Democratic Club of New York City and Fight Back New York all played roles in Peralta’s victory.

Indicative of Monserrate character, the Times reports that the scoundrel stopped at a senior citizens’ center in Corona that served as a polling site.

Apparently ignoring election rules that prohibit candidates from campaigning within 100 feet of polling stations, he walked in, shook hands with the men, hugged the women and danced salsa with students taking a class until the center’ director persuaded him to leave.

It is good to see this self-absorbed, arrogant, hypocrite get ousted from politics. He can now pack up his disgraceful anti-gay circus and go home.

Last month, the New York Senate tried and failed to bring equal marriage rights to the citizens of New York. If you don’t remember, things went south when eight cowardly Democrats betrayed their caucus and joined the Republicans in defeating the bill. One of those Democrats was Senator Hiram Monserrate of Queens, who, before his vote, had become notorious for being charged with “slashing his girlfriend Karla Giraldo in the face with a broken glass.” Continued:

Monserrate was found guilty of the lesser charge of third-degree assault for dragging a bleeding Giraldo down the hallway of their building after the alleged attack. That charge is only a misdemeanor so the lawmaker will be able to keep his seat in Albany.

Despite initially claiming Monserrate attacked her, Giraldo had refused to cooperate with the prosecution in the case.

Oh, and there was video!

(via NY Daily News)

Classy!

So why am I bringing this up? Well, it seems that a group calling itself the “Coalition for Morality” has been dispersing these flyers in support of Senator Monserrate:

Classy again! So who are the generically branded “Coalition for Morality”? We don’t quite know. My Googling has come up dry, and the others who have reported this have had similar results. For all we know, Monserrate could have printed them up himself!

But I do know this: This little flyer is revelatory of the worldview which seeks to deny equality to the LGBT community. It may seem abhorrent to people with any semblance of a moral compass that a man caught assaulting a woman on camera could be held up as a paragon of morality, but it really shouldn’t be surprising. There are indeed many conservative religious people out there who hit the fainting couch over two consenting adults of the same gender falling in love, but at the same time really don’t mind the idea of abusing women. I mean, let’s get real here. Respected conservative “thinkers” have penned pieces as recently as last year which seem to support the idea that marital rape doesn’t exist! (Dennis Prager, I’m looking at you.)

So there you have it. According to some people, Hiram Monserrate, abuser of women, can claim moral authority over gay people who choose to live our lives with integrity.

Gross.