Dec 14, 2017 4 min read

In any profession, there are the people who are at the top of their field. At the same time, there are doctors, lawyers and, yes, even newspaper editors, who finished last in their college graduating classes. This gulf in competency applies also to the folks who represent us in local governments, the state Legislature and in Washington, D.C.

We have been rather fortunate in our neck of the woods to have quality representation in Harrisburg in recent years. Not all Pennsylvanians are so lucky. There are folks in one particular state House district who are especially unlucky. Their representative is an outright embarrassment. That would be Republican Rep. Daryl Metcalfe of Butler County, who has once again made a horse’s behind of himself.

Metcalfe first came to our attention about 10 years ago when he threw a monkey wrench into a planned vote on a resolution to recognize the 60th annual convention of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Harrisburg. Metcalfe took to the House floor to proclaim, “The Muslims do not recognize Jesus Christ as God, and I will be voting negative.” The resolution was withdrawn from consideration amid the ensuing controversy.

In the years since, Metcalfe also has created an organization to fight what he calls the “leftist propaganda of global warming and climate change,” and once invited a man with white nationalist ties to testify before a House committee he chairs.

The Southern Poverty Law Center called the proposed speaker a white supremacist, but Metcalfe argued that white nationalism is not white supremacy.

Metcalfe, however, has saved most of his venom and bile for members of the LGBT community.

He once attempted to pull funding from universities that offered domestic partner benefits. He also tried about five years ago to amend the state constitution to ban gay marriage. Then, in June 2013, when the Defense of Marriage Act was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court, he was among several lawmakers who blocked a colleague from speaking on the House floor in support of that ruling, saying, “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.”

That brings us to an incident last week, when, during debate on a bill dealing with land use, Metcalfe freaked out when a colleague touched him on the forearm.

The ranking Democrat on the committee, Rep. Matt Bradford of Montgomery County, put his hand on Metcalfe’s left forearm while trying to make a point.

Metcalfe interjected, saying, “Representative Bradford, look, I’m a heterosexual. I have a wife. I love my wife. I don’t like men, as you might. But stop touching me all the time. Keep your hands to yourself. If you want to touch somebody, you have people on your side of the aisle that might like it. I don’t.”

Bradford, a married father of four, was taken aback. Who could blame him in the face of such lunacy?

“I have no idea what goes on in his head,” Bradford said later. “And some days, I’m glad for that.”

There have been calls in the ensuing days for Metcalfe to be removed from his committee chairmanship, or even that he resign because of his clear homophobia.

Metcalfe has made it clear he doesn’t intend to go anywhere. It would be our hope that the voters in his district take matters into their own hands, but Metcalfe has been re-elected nine times, so that might be unlikely.

What puzzles us most is Metcalfe’s apparent need to brag about his heterosexuality. It’s no great achievement, or something of which Metcalfe should be proud. After all, he was just born that way.