Pennsylvania Republican's Response to Democrat, 'Stop Touching Me,' Draws Criticism

The Pennsylvania Democratic Party is calling for a Republican state representative to resign after he declared himself a heterosexual during a committee meeting on Tuesday, December 5, and asked his male Democratic colleague to stop touching him.Government Committee Democratic Chairman Matt Bradford is seen in this video briefly touching the arm of State Government Chairman Daryl Metcalfe during a discussion on a bill.Metcalfe, interrupting Bradford, responds, “I’m a heterosexual. I have a wife. I love my wife. I don’t like men as you might, but stop touching me all the time. Keep your hands to yourself.” Bradford and some committee members start laughing. “If you want to touch somebody,” Metcalfe continued, “you have people on your side of the aisle who might like it. I don’t.”Bradford says the committee meeting was “officially off the rails,” and that his intention was to beg for 30 seconds more to speak. “Then beg. Don’t touch,” Metcalfe says.Bradford then goes back to his points about the bill being discussed.Metcalfe said in an interview he has asked Bradford several times to not touch him during meetings for several months. Bradford said he was not making a pass at the representative in the same news report.Bradford is married to a woman and has four children, according to his state House bio.Democrats called for Metcalfe to resign; a gay and transgender rights group and a health care workers’ labor union asked he be removed from his committee chairmanship, a news report said. Credit: Pennsylvania House Democratic Caucus via Storyful