PA’s First Openly Gay Elected Official is Mike Fleck and He’s a Republican

This past election, Eastern PA elected our first first openly gay candidate, Brian Sims, to the PA House. This weekend, we learned however, that current State Rep Mike Fleck (R) has come out. So that’s an interesting turn of events.

From PoliticsPA

He said his party affiliation remains strong.

“The Republican party is all about the government needing to stay out of people’s lives,” Fleck said. “I’m not a one-issue person and it’s not a one-issue party.”

More of his testimonial from the Daily News is below.

Fleck, 39, has a resume that would impress Republicans anywhere. An Eagle Scout by age 18, he graduated from Liberty University in 1995 and worked professionally for the Boy Scouts of America as a district executive in Huntingdon County from 1999 to 2004. He was married in 2002.

In the legislature he’s been a moderate Republican; he was targeted by the conservative Citizens Alliance for Pennsylvania in 2011. However, aside a few votes in committees where Fleck doesn’t serve, there haven’t been significant votes on gay rights issues during his tenure.

He and his wife separated about a year ago; they do not have children.

I think this is good news, for both a fellow LGBTQ person who has taken a step to live more honestly and for Pennsylvania as a whole – the opportunity to get to know an openly gay man. It may also be another bridge for folks in the House to cross the aisle and get things done.

I don’t see the value of bashing him. His public comments reject gay conversion therapy which is good. It is yet to be seen how he’ll vote, but its not likely he’ll have much of an opportunity unless the sphecter of the “marriage protection” amendment resurfaces in a committee he’s assigned to next term. His stance on intrusion makes it unlikely he’ll support hate crimes legislation or even workplace protections against discrimination, but that might change as he experiences his own workplace as an openly gay man.

My stance is that we need moderate Republican allies – we as women, we as LGBTQ folks, we as Pennsylvania.

And congratulations, Representative Fleck.

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When I was poking around the Facebook pages of a few elected officials, I found this on the page of PA State Rep Mark Mustio

She confused PA General Assembly with the Punjab Assembly. In Pakistan.

She didn’t read the link. The very first paragraph makes it very clear it is not about Pennsylvania. Then there’s the mind-blowing aspect of how someone could take this seriously.

Debbie took the post down and apparentlyblocked me. She’s probably embarrassed. She should be, but I have little pity for her because her Facebook page is pasted with wingnut crap. I have no problem saying she might have the intellectual underpinnings of a brick for not actually reading a link before she posted it on her State Rep’s page. Then there’s simple facts – we live in a Republican controlled state which would never do this. And a Democratic controlled state would never do this. For different reasons, but its not remotely possible this would happen. Unless President Obama has something to do with it?

But then there’s the issue that State Representative Mustio didn’t acknowledge or respond to a comment like this (ridiculous as it might be) that was posted on March 6. That’s 4 days. His page has less than 150 followers so I’m guessing social media communication with his constituents is just not a priority. Neither apparently is making sure accurate information comes out of his tools. So he’s responsible for this ridiculous mishap, too. He didn’t block me yet.

So why do I care beyond the snicker factor? Well, because Debbie is pretty political. And she’s not concerned with facts. Or research. That and her over-the-top Facebook posts suggests we can make an assumption that’s she’s susceptible to rhetoric, spin and hyperbole. She’s our worst nightmare – the uniformed ACTIVE voter.

Debbie takes action fueled by inaccuracies. What do you do?

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