Pennsylvania state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R) seems to have taken a page out of Donald Trump’s book in his recent Facebook rant about his Democratic colleagues, whom he refers to as “liberal losers.”
In the Facebook post, Metcalfe calls out several of his colleagues for their apparent “disrespectful” attitudes, including Brian Sims, whom Metcalfe called a “lying homosexual.” (Sims became Pennsylvania’s first openly gay elected state legislator in 2012.)
Metcalfe’s Facebook post reads:
Another lying Philadelphia Liberal Democrat Legislator attacking me this week with the help of the media! Another Democrat playing the victim while he is actually the perpetrator! After a committee meeting last week Philadelphia Representative Rabb approached me and launched into a profanity laced disrespectful tirade. A week later he wrote a letter making false accusations that I threatened him and based it on me possibly being armed because of my support for the 2nd Amendment! There is a pattern to the attacks that have been made against me by liberal loser Democrat legislators on my committee. Former Rep Leslie Acosta who lied about me is now convict Acosta, lying homosexual Rep Brian Sims has been under an ethics investigation, then there is constant touchy-feely Rep Matt Bradford who has touched me over 40 times in what many observers have said is an attempt to provoke me! When they oppose us on my committee, they lose every vote and we win every vote! I block all substantive Democrat legislation sent to my committee and advance good Republican legislation! Liberals continue their lying attacks
in an attempt to stop my work in defense of taxpayers and our liberty!
Metcalfe continued to double-down on his comments, telling AP in an interview that he believes that Sims being gay is “immoral behavior.”
Sims responded to Metcalfe’s mouthy tirade with his own brilliant clapback: a tweet referencing Regina George’s “Burn Book” from Mean Girls and called Metcalfe “infamously bigoted.”
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/Oc7iLDN2qt pic.twitter.com/FVC4dBgbuY
— Brian Sims (@BrianSimsPA) April 20, 2018
Sims also took to Facebook to denounce his colleague’s behavior and call for Metcalfe’s removal from his current position as Chair of the State Government Committee.
“For the record, he’s a racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic, bigot and those of us in Pennsylvania have known this for a long time,” Sims says in the Facebook post. “All of those words have definitions. His behavior, his public statements, and his legislation over the years all clearly rise to the level of those definitions.”
“This latest rant won’t be his last but it could be his last as the Chair of the powerful State Government Committee that oversees Civil Rights Bills and Gerrymandering Legislation.”
This certainly isn’t the first time that Metcalfe has railed against his openly gay colleague. In 2013, Metcalfe invoked a legislative rule to prevent Sims from talking about gay marriage, because Metcalfe believed that Sims’ speech would be “an open rebellion against Almighty God and God’s word.”
It’s unclear whether Sims’ call to action will achieve its desired effects — but the idea of Metcalfe chairing any committee is decidedly unsettling, and this guy probably shouldn’t be making widespread decisions for diverse groups of people when he exhibits such obvious prejudice.