Out Rep. Responds to Pa. Governor’s Anti-Gay Remarks
Pennsylvania's openly gay Rep. Brian Sims, 35, took to Facebook Friday afternoon to respond to the state's Republican governor, Tom Corbett, who made waves this week for equating marriage equality to incest.
"All day long I've been hearing about the Governor's comments earlier this morning comparing marriage equality to incest," Sims' post reads. "In truth, I'm not giving him or his comments all that much thought and I encourage you to do the same.
"No one, not even his own party, would argue that he's an intellectual heavyweight or even a particularly thoughtful person," the post continues. "The larger issue is that despite the fact that the majority of Pennsylvanians disagree with him, he continues to be the heaviest hitter in Pennsylvania's anti-equality crusade.
"Our job isn't just to be frustrated with the homophobia coming from the Governor's Mansion, it's to do everything we can to ensure that his chapter in Pennsylvania's political history is as sad and short as his record on schools, economic development and civil rights," he writes.
"Tom Corbett has been a disaster for Pennsylvania for so many reasons and I hope this fuels your resolve to vote him out of office."
As of this writing, the post has 800 likes and nearly 120 shares. Sims' post also sparked a number of comments.
"AMEN! Being a former Pennsylvanian I'm ashamed that he got elected governor! All of the mistakes he's made in office and let's not forget all the mistakes he made during the Jerry Sandusky fiasco when he was attorney general....of course we in Kentucky have Rand Paul so I guess there are idiots in each state!" one user wrote.
"Yes, but the problem is that he gets to decide whether thousands of Pennsylvania citizens get to have the same rights as everyone else. It's one thing when some random bigot in a bar says some stupid homophobic shit. It's quite another when it's the governor of a state of 13 million saying these jaw-droppingly ignorant and offensive comments. He should be criticized, loudly and often, from all corners of society," another said.
"Thanks so much for posting this, Brian - I "shared." Corbett is a huge mistake on so many levels. One of the things I'll need to work on the most if elected to the Upper Merion Area school board is cleaning up the huge crisis he's levied on our school system," another Facebook user commented.
Sims introduced a bill on Thursday that would bring marriage equality to Pennsylvania, Last month he also introduced, with other lawmakers, a bill to protect Pennsylvania children by banning mental health providers from using "conversion therapy" on minors. New Jersey and California have passed similar measures.
the Associated Press reported that Corbett compared same-sex marriage to the marriage of a brother and sister while he was on a morning TV news show on Friday. One of the anchors asked the governor about a statement his lawyers made in a recent court filing that compared gay marriage to the marriage of children because neither can legally marry in Pennsylvania.
"It was an inappropriate analogy, you know," Corbett said. "I think a much better analogy would have been brother and sister, don't you?"