Pennsylvania state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R) took aim at his Democratic colleagues, whom he deemed “liberal losers,” in a blistering, eyebrow-raising Facebook post on Friday.
An outspoken opponent of same-sex marriage and other LGBTQ causes, Metcalfe had particularly harsh words for Democratic Rep. Brian Sims, whom he’s been clashing with for years.
In the post, he blasted Sims ― who became his state’s first openly gay elected state legislator in 2012 ― as a “lying homosexual.”
Metcalfe didn’t back down from his comments in an interview with The Associated Press on Saturday. He told the AP he mentioned Sims’ sexuality because he believes being gay is “immoral behavior.”
On Friday, Sims shot back at Metcalfe with a cheeky tweet inspired by an iconic moment in “Mean Girls.”
In a lengthier Facebook post Saturday, he deemed Metcalfe “a racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic, bigot.”
“Those of us in Pennsylvania have known this for a long time,” he wrote. “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.”
Metcalfe’s war of words with Sims has been ongoing for years. In 2013, he invoked a legislative rule to keep Sims from talking about same-sex marriage, because he believed the representative’s words would have been “an open rebellion against Almighty God and God’s word.”
In July of last year, Metcalfe complained that Sims called him an “ignorant, racist bigot” after a legislative dispute. In a YouTube video titled “The Intolerant Left,” Metcalfe also referred to a “crimson-faced and emotionally unhinged” lawmaker who he later identified as Sims.
Metcalfe found himself in hot water once again last December when he accosted another Democratic lawmaker with homophobic language for tapping him on his arm.
“Look, I’m a heterosexual. I have a wife, I love my wife,” Metcalfe told Democratic state Rep. Matt Bradford. “I don’t like men, as you might. But ... stop touching me all the time.”