Dems flipped State Rep Daryl Metcalfe’s seat three years after he retired, ending his 24 year anti-LGBTQ reign of terror.

This blogger is savoring a moment of simple satisfaction On Tuesday, Butler County residents voted in a Special Election to fill the vacancy of PA House District 12. Democrat Brandon Dukes defeated the Republican nominee by fewer than 100 votes.

One of the most overt homophobic and transphobic legislators in modern Pennsylvania history represented the 12th legislative district from 1999 until 2023. Located in Butler County, the district runs from Adams to Zelienople.

Former State Rep Daryl Metcalfe (l) in an undated photo and Representative-Elect Brandon Dukes (r) in a campaign photo.

That bigot was Daryl Metcalfe. From opposing environmental everything to cozying up with White Nationalists, he was a precursor to all that we contend with now on a national level. He was petty, vicious, and accumulated a lot of power in nearly a quarter of a century in his seat. He was a tried and true racist.

Most of all, he was one of the most notorious anti-LGBTQ legislators in Pennsylvania history. He used his role on the State Government committee to perpetually block almost any LGBTQ legislation from even a preliminary vote. He freaked out when a male legislator touched his arm. He blocked domestic violence funding because of the LGBTQ affiliation. He sued lesbians over their marriage. He called former State Representative Brian Sims a “lying homosexual.”

He led ceaseless efforts to prevent marriage equality in Pennsylvania. Serving 12 consecutive terms, he ranks among the longest tenured members of the house (21.)

After his last term ended in 2023, he opted not to run and a Republic promptly replaced him. Of course. Countless Democrats titled at the windmill and got nowhere. The most recent occupant by won by 30 points in 2024. That was Stephenie Scialabba who resigned abruptly in March.

That led to the special election where Dukes took on Republican Scott Timko. And a 30 point lead slithered into a Democratic victory by, it appears, 88 votes. 30 points to 88 votes.

There is another matchup in November. So if you know anyone who lives in these communities, please reach out to them. 88 is awesome but far from a safe distance.

I hope to interview Brandon Dukes. Do not know much about him, he did get the Steel City Stonewall Democrats endorsement, but I can’t find his questionnaire. He did respond to the endorsement “Proud to have the endorsement from the @stonewallpgh . As a long time supporters of the LGBTQ community, I believe their rights are human rights.”

We definitely need more details, but for now – right here, I’m going to savor a moment I never thought would come. After nearly a quarter of a century of open hostility by this predecessor, I hope State Rep-Elect Dukes will let us have our moment to breath.

This post really is about Daryl Metcalfe. He was in office for most of my current blogging years, just a few miles up the road, and a regularly source of thwacking on anything remotely progressive. And especially LGBTQ people.

For us, he held a unique level of contempt. I don’t know if it was personal or simple expedient to target us. But he was personally (and politically) responsible for killing every attempt to pass statewide nondiscrimination protections – for LGBTQ people and disabled folx. He never even allowed the matter to get a hearing. He also wanted to destroy our families, resisting the inevitable ruling that marriage equality is the law of the land. He proposed to amend the state constitution and helped pass the existing version of the so-called “Defense of Marriage Act.”

Those two legislative efforts have caused tremendous harm to LGBTQ folx in Pennsylvania, harm that will take many flipped seats to heal. People often lose sight of these realities – if I drive out of Allegheny County in any direction, I lose my protections. That’s true for about 70% of the state.

At the same time, Pennsylvania’s DOMA is still ‘on the books’ but inactive. The SCOTUS rulings rendered it invalid, but it has never been repealed. So if marriage falls – as many of us anticipate – same sex marriage will immediately become illegal in Pennsylvania. That’s known as a trigger law, we saw it roll out after Roe v Wade was overturned. I could go into my personal diatribe that we cannot rely on existing marriages being ‘grandparented’ and assume any of us has any privilege here, but I’ll refrain.

Daryl Metcalfe was not single-handedly responsible for these anti-LGBTQ legislative efforts, but he was a lynchpin and a staunch, loud foe. I think sometimes about his reaction to being touched by a man. In the current national regime, that would become a joke to mock and debase. Metcalfe has immersed himself so deeply in his cruelty that he could not stand even the hint of a perception that he was okay being touched by a man in any way, shape, or form.

The trauma and scars of his legacy are everywhere. Even as I’m hopeful we can address some issues, my mind keeps repeating “Thank God Metcalfe retired before he could use his bully pulpit to terrorize trans kids.”

Before you go into the “he’s closeted” analysis, keep in mind that it doesn’t matter *why* – it matters what he did to us. It matters how his power and influence shaped the Commonwealth for a long time to come. History will denounce this hateful petty man, but the damage is done.

Metcalfe paved the way for Trump. You see that, right? We can reasonably assume that Trump’s chaotic authoritarianism attempts were partially responsible for the seat flipping. People are about done with Republicans who can’t control their party. That’s a gross simplification of the details, but I’ll leave the voter data analysis to Chris Potter and Representative Malcolm Kenyatta.

Dukes defeated someone other than Melcalfe, but that upset is absolutely tied to Metcalfe’s legacy – he only retired in 2023. Dukes flipped Metcalfe’s seat less than three years later.

Here is where I’ll dive back into the national scene for a minute. Dukes’ victory offers a blueprint to flipping other seats in Pennsylvania. It is a big fucking deal. But it might also show us something about a post-Trump world. Metcalfe had no designated protege. He supported his successor, but that’s vastly different than cultivating and preparing someone to fill your shoes.

Trump also has no real successor. Yes, there’s my distant cousin on my mother’s side, Vice President JD Vance. He may be family, but he’s no President. He’s also a shriveling hateful bigot who will never fill Trumps big beautiful slippers.

One final point. This is personal. Obviously as a queer person, you see why Metcalfe’s legacy is horrible. But there’s another angle. – my mother’s ‘other’ side of the family arrived in Butler County along with the first white colonizers. They saw a cleared and planted field so they took it and named the community Clearfield Township. That’s my cousins.

Many, many of these folks are in the outlying counties like Butler – Armstrong, Westmoreland, Indiana, Mercer, Lawrence, and beyond. While I can’t see a “Meet your lesbian cousin” podcast having any impact, these are my people and I can make a much bigger effort to connect with them about the rematch.

Congratulations to Brandon Dukes and the people in the 12th State House District. Congratulations also to all LGBTQ people throughout Pennsylvania. This is a moment we deserve to savor. That man set out to destroy us and put in place many barriers that will take a long time to undo. Flipping more seats is one way to go about it.

I’m going to find some small way to savor this moment. Then I’m going to try to get a Q&A with Dukes.