Lawmaker: 'I'm a Heterosexual, Stop Touching Me'

A conservative Pennsylvania lawmaker halted a meeting Tuesday to declare that he is a heterosexual and does not welcome being touched by men. The cause of his outrage? A brief touch on the forearm from Democratic Rep. Matt Bradford. In an exchange captured on video, Republican Rep. Daryl Metcalfe interrupts Bradford during a discussion of a land-use bill to say: "Look, 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." As Bradford and other committee members laughed, Metcalfe added: "Keep your hands to yourself. If you want to touch somebody, you have people on your side of the aisle who might like it. I don't."

Metcalfe tells the Philadelphia Inquirer that Bradford has been "continually" reaching out and touching him for months. "If someone touches another person, and they say, 'stop touching me,' and they don't stop, that's serious business," he says. Bradford—who is married to a woman and has four children—says he was simply trying to calm Metcalfe down while he finished his thought and certainly wasn't making a pass. Metcalfe, now in his 10th term, has often spoken out against homosexuality. After Tuesday's remarks, the state Democratic Party said he should resign, calling him a "walking, talking embarrassment to Pennsylvanians," the Washington Post reports. (More Pennsylvania stories.)