Another lawmaker has decided to live an honest life by coming out of the closet. Representative and Republican Mike Fleck gave a candid interview revealing his path of leaving the closet but recognizes that his journey has been a fearful one:
“Coming out is hard enough, but doing it in the public eye is definitely something I never anticipated, I’m still the exact same person and I’m still a Republican and, most importantly, I’m still a person of faith trying to live life as a servant of God and the public. The only difference now is that I will also be doing so as honestly as I know how.”
“I wanted to live a ‘normal’ life and raise a family, I also believed that by marrying, I was fulfilling God’s will and I thought my same-sex attraction would simply go away.”
“[M]y livelihood depended on hiding my true sexual orientation, something I was very good at.”
“Through years of counseling, I’ve met a lot of gay Christians who have tried hard to change their God-given sexual orientation, but at the end of the day, I know of none who’ve been successful, They’ve only succeeded at repressing their identity, only to have it reappear time and time again and always wreaking havoc not only on themselves, but especially on their family.”
“I don’t see anything changing in my life, I don’t see my voting pattern changing,” Fleck said. “I just want to do my very best for the 81st District. I’m just trying to be authentic and I do owe it to my constituency to do that.”
This makes Fleck the first openly gay representative from the state of Pennsylvania but he will not be the only one. Brian Sims ran as an out candidate during the 2012 elections and is set to also represent the Pennsylvania House of Representatives starting in January.
I think it’s great that Fleck felt comfortable enough to come out and commend him for doing so. My question now however is will Fleck show support to the republican party and it’s leaders despite their very anti-gay stance, especially this past election season or stand up to them and fight for equality. And I don’t mean the timid and apologist mentality of the Log Cabin Republicans but really standing up against the highly accepted bigotry of the republican party.
And as much as I wish it weren’t true, this has changed things contrary to what Fleck believes. And his prior affiliation with the Boy Scouts of America should make him even more cognizant of that. I understand that Fleck supports a republican ideal but currently the republican/GOP/extremist party is anything but right now. Maybe Fleck is set out to change that, maybe not but the question still remains.
Do I feel that there can be a gay republican that advocates for equal rights and vehemently challenges his/her party to stop promoting hate? Well I do believe anything is possible but we haven’t seen this variation of a republican yet in politics. I don’t care what political affliation one has as long as they fully support and advocate for equal rights. I guess only time will tell how authentic Fleck is with policy. .