A state senator, Ruben Diaz, and several Hispanic clergymen met yesterday to denounce last Friday’s Manhattan Supreme Court ruling and the unanimous support for same-sex nuptials from the leading mayoral candidates.

Mr. Diaz, a Democrat from the Bronx who is president of the New York Hispanic Clergy Organization, spoke in Spanish to members of the group at the Christian Community Benevolent Association’s building at East 172nd Street. Mr. Diaz is an ordained minister of the Church of God, a pastor at the Christian Community Neighborhood Church, and the founder of the benevolent association, a nonprofit group that provides assistance to the elderly.

Mr. Diaz told his fellow pastors that he rejected the court’s decision out of religious conviction, but that the city’s appeal had to be made on legal, not religious, grounds, as a way to resist judicial overreach. Speaking of Justice Doris Ling-Cohan, who issued the ruling, Mr. Diaz said: “She’s trying to change the … state constitution, which is something a judge cannot do. That is for the Legislature.” In the Legislature, he added, he thought there were enough votes from a coalition of Democrats and Republicans to defeat any attempt to make same-sex marriage legal.

He also called into question the judge’s objectivity. Mr. Diaz said that in August 2003, he brought a lawsuit against the city to block the use of public funds for the Harvey Milk High School, a school for gay teens. Justice Ling-Cohan, Mr. Diaz said, has refused to rule on the matter in the 18 months since he brought the suit, while taking a mere six months to deliver Friday’s gay-marriage decision. He called for the judge to recuse herself from any further involvement in his pending case.

In the meantime, Mr. Diaz said, Hispanic clergy are mobilizing their communities to protest the decision and any further attempts to make same-sex marriage legal.

A demonstration in March 2004, Mr. Diaz said, drew 30,000 Hispanic evangelical Christians to the steps of the Bronx Supreme Court to denounce same-sex marriage and support the federal marriage amendment. Another protest this year – which, by a show of hands, all the clergy gathered enthusiastically supported – would attract more than 30,000, Mr. Diaz said.

That community response, and comments from Mr. Diaz, suggested religious Hispanics could cause political difficulty for Fernando Ferrer in his quest to reach City Hall.

Since Mr. Bloomberg and all of the Democratic mayoral candidates are in favor of legalizing gay marriage, Mr. Diaz said, religious Hispanics may have no choice but to withhold their votes entirely. Mr. Ferrer’s position, however, is more insulting to Hispanics than the other candidates’ precisely because he is one of their own, the state senator said. He labeled Mr. Ferrer’s call for the mayor to drop the city’s appeal a “slap in the face” to Hispanics opposed to gay marriage.

Mr. Ferrer declined to comment for this article.

Mr. Diaz, his colleagues, and members of their congregations must “send a message” this year that they will not tolerate same-sex marriage, Mr. Diaz told The New York Sun after his remarks. “And if we have to send it to Fernando Ferrer, so be it,” he said.

Even though his community was poised to withhold “thousands and thousands and thousands of votes,” Mr. Diaz said, he doubted any of the candidates would change their positions on gay nuptials. That kind of switch is the “deadly sin” of politics. “Once you take a position and change it, they call you things like they called Kerry,” Mr. Diaz said.

Other clergy present said they agreed with Mr. Diaz’s remarks and his calls for protest.

A member of the Association of Pastors and Ministers of Queens, Lourdes Perez, said she thought the push for gay marriage was a “monstrosity,” which she and her allies will “protest massively.” Ms. Perez said many religious Hispanics would stay home on Election Day for lack of a candidate who shared their feelings on the matter. “It’s not worth it to vote against my principles,” she said.

The rabbi of the Lion of Judah Congregation in the Bronx, Lilian Hadassah Vargas, said she thought the court’s decision was “totally illegal” and expressed concern that further lawsuits could threaten clergy who refused to perform gay marriages.

The treasurer of the New York Hispanic Clergy Organization, Domingo Rodriguez, said that while he thought politicians should discuss the gay-marriage issue more with clergy, he recognized it was an uphill battle. “The gay community has a lot of power, a lot of money,” he said. “They contribute a lot to candidates; they’re very organized.”

As for Mr. Ferrer, Mr. Rodriguez said: “Just because he’s Hispanic doesn’t mean we’ll be in favor of everything he does.”