Brian Sims

Brian Sims, the first out gay legislator to be elected in Pennsylvania, has said that some of the worst misogyny he has seen has come from gay men.

The Democrat and LGBT+ activist also discussed internalised homophobia, which he had witnessed while working with other members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.

“The same mind that thinks gay is wrong is a mind that already thinks that women are lesser, that femininity is weak. And so, what I see is most homophobia is really anger at a person because their sexuality veers from what somebody [else thinks] it should be,” he told Advocate in an interview.

Sims added: “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.

“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.”

The politician also suggested that his Democratic Party needs to engage more with equality movements in America.

“Democrats are the party of women,” he said. “They are the party of LGBT rights. They are the party of racial and ethnic equality.

“However, they were being… the party of politics for too long, and where I’ve seen the Democratic Party get better is when they were pushed there and pulled there by young people, by Black Lives Matter, by Latino Victory, by the Victory Fund, by HRC.”

“We’re suffering not from a broken government, we’re suffering from a lack of engagement in a neutral government,” he added.

OFFICIAL WELCOME: @MikePenceVP let me be the first to officially welcome you to the City of Brotherly Love and to my District! We’re a City of soaring diversity. We believe in the power of all people: Black, Brown, Queer, Trans, Atheist, & Immigrant. So…get bent, then get out! pic.twitter.com/G9eLrXgeVn — Brian Sims (@BrianSimsPA) June 19, 2018

“These campaigns, these blue wave campaigns around the country, are being staffed by people that are learning how to create winning campaigns. We’re doing the things, right now, that we need to do to take back government.”

Sims turned heads in June when he “welcomed” vice president Mike Pence to Pennsylvania by posting a photo of himself raising a middle finger.

He wrote on Twitter: “OFFICIAL WELCOME: Vice President Mike Pence let me be the first person to officially welcome you to the City of Brotherly Love, and to my District in the State House!”