OFFICIAL WELCOME: Vice President Mike Pence let me be the first person to officially welcome you to the City of Brotherly Love, and to my District in the State House!
To be clear, we’re a City of soaring diversity. We believe in the power of all people to live and to contribute: Black, Brown, Queer, Trans, Atheist, Immigrant, we want you and we’ll respect you.
So keep that in mind while you’re here raising money to attack more families, spread more lies, blaspheme with your bible, and maybe even talk to a woman without your wife in the room. We have plenty of them, and they’re pretty much all more powerful and more real than you have ever been.
A Republican state lawmaker in Pennsylvania is calling a colleague a “lying homosexual” in a Facebook post attacking liberal legislators. Rep. Daryl Metcalfe also is defending his comments, which he made Friday.
He tells The Associated Press that he mentioned the sexual orientation of Democratic Rep. Brian Sims of Philadelphia because Sims has spoken openly about being gay, and because he believes it is “immoral behavior.”
Sims is calling Metcalfe “Rep. Snowflake McRacist” on Twitter and says Metcalfe “claims victimhood” when he’s called out in public. Metcalfe also recently accosted another state lawmaker for repeatedly touching his arm, and suggested the man might be gay.
The Pennsylvania Democratic Party released a statement about Metcalfe’s tirade: “Metcalfe’s racist and homophobic outbursts and blatant admission that he blocks legislation from advancing for the sole reason that it is sponsored by Democrats is why Pennsylvanians distrust Harrisburg. Not only is he a disgusting human being, he is incredibly unfit to run the House’s State Government Committee and Mike Turzai must revoke his chairmanship immediately.
Brian Sims responded on Twitter
My most infamously bigoted colleague, Rep. Daryl Metcalfe took to his “burn book” to attack my colleagues of color and myself call me a “lying homosexual.” I could use your help as I go up against this type of blatant homophobia and bigotry in the Capital. https://t.co/Oc7iLDN2qtpic.twitter.com/FVC4dBgbuY
Margaret Cho has launched a Twitter tirade against the Philadelphia police department over the light sentences handed down this week for two of the three gay-bashers charged last year in a brutal street attack against a gay couple. Philly police responded that they don’t handle prosecutions. The exchange continued, with Cho complaining that there were no hate crimes charges and the police then informed her that no such law exists in Pennsylvania.
Unfortunately while Philly PD was right that they don;t handle prosecutions they were very wrong when they said that no Hate Crime laws exist in Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA is a member of this union & since hate crimes against LGBT people are illegal in the United States of America as of October 2009 therefore federal law hate crimes legislation applies.
Federal law banning hate crimes against LGBT people needs to be enforced in every state of this union in order to get federal funding and unless it it enforced it is useless.
Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Sims, who is the first openly gay lawmaker elected in Pennsylvania history, is asking the PA legislators to censure ultra-conservative Rep. Daryl Metcalfe who blocked him from making remarks about the SCOTUS rulings on gay marriage. Metcalfe’s blocked Sims because he was preparing to make remarks that were “open rebellion against what the word of God has said, what God has said, and just open rebellion against God’s law.”
In a part of the house session where members can speak on wide-ranging topics, Sims had just begun his remarks when he was shut down.
“I wasn’t planning on chastising anybody. I wasn’t planning on discussing how far we have to come in Pennsylvania or that we really have no civil rights in Pennsylvania,” Sims said. “It was really just going to limit my comments to how important the cases were.”
It takes just one legislator to end the impromptu remarks. Rep. Daryl Metcalfe was one of the House Republicans who objected.
“I did not believe that as a member of that body that I should allow someone to make comments such as he was preparing to make that ultimately were just open rebellion against what the word of God has said, what God has said, and just open rebellion against God’s law,” said Metcalfe, R-Butler.
Two more Democratic legislators got up to speak in support of Sims. Neither was allowed to proceed.
Sims has officially requested that Metcalfe be censured for his behavior the AP reports:
On Thursday, House Speaker Sam Smith, R-Jefferson, told Sims the proper procedure under the circumstances would be either going through the Ethics Committee or seeking a House resolution. Sims said he plans to pursue the matter.
“This is a guy who hates women, he hates gay people, he hates minorities and he hates immigrants,” Sims said. Metcalfe is among the most conservative state lawmakers. He has sponsored pro-gun-rights rallies and organized opposition to people who enter the country without legal permission.
Metcalfe said he regularly attends a nondenominational Christian church near his home in western Pennsylvania. He said the comments Sims would have made about the high court’s decisions would have been “ultimately offensive to the majority of my constituents, and myself.”
A quick thought before I head to bed: What happened the last two days in Harrisburg wasn’t a Democrat vs. Republican thing. This was the State House vs. a few tea partiers. From the Speaker handling all of this appropriately to the many members of the Republican caucus I’ve heard from who’ve apologized for the lack of decorum, it’s clear to me that the entire State House was angered by the shenanigans. That’s the progress I’m looking for and I’m thankful to be finding it! Lots to do but lots to celebrate these days…
I don;t know about you but I, for one, would be more than happy to be in open rebellion of God’s Law with the WOOFY Brian Sims any day.
Current TV’s John Fugelsang (My straight “fag-stag” stand-up comedian crush) interveiwed openly gay Pennsylvania Congressional candidate Brian Sims and talked about Republicans, Mitt Romney’s position on same-sex marriage, and a topic that really needs to explored homophobia in the Democratic Party.
