In a recent interview, Pennsylvania
State Representative Brian Sims said that he serves with “over a
dozen closeted members.”
Sims, a Democrat, is the first openly
gay person elected to the Pennsylvania General Assembly.
Sims made the comment while speaking
with LGBT glossy The
Advocate.
“I serve with over a dozen closeted
members, whom I would never identify to anybody else, and when I
joined the legislature, many of them were co-sponsors of anti-LGBT
bills,” he said. “Some of the most intense misogyny I see
towards women comes from gay men. Whereas I would think that living a
life where others marginalize you would teach you how to combat
marginalization and how to recognize it, oftentimes, it teaches
people how to be good at it themselves.”
Sims added that most homophobia “is
really anger at a person because their sexuality veers from what
somebody [else thinks] it should be.”
“The same mind that thinks gay is
wrong is a mind that already thinks that women are lesser, that
femininity is weak,” he said.
(Related: Brian
Sims: Holding my boyfriend's hand in public shows “we're proud of
our romantic life.”)