Pennsylvania Lawmaker Becomes Only Openly Gay Republican State Legislator

Mike Fleck, (R-Huntingdon), Pennsylvania State Representative announced that he is gay on December 1, 2012.  He is the first out gay legislator in Pennsylvania and the only out gay Republican state legislator in the U.S. until the new year.  Then, in 2013, gay attorney and Democrat Brian Sims, who defeated Rep. Babette Josephs (D-Phila) last April, joins him in the House.

Mike Fleck

Mike Fleck

His Politics Will Stay The Same

Despite his coming out, the move will not affect his committment to the Republican party.  Said Fleck “the Republican party is all about the government needing to stay out of people’s lives. I’m not a one-issue person and it’s not a one-issue party.”

In the legislature, Fleck, 39, has been considered a moderate Republican.  In 2011, he was targeted by the conservative Citizens Alliance for Pennsylvania. During his tenure, there haven’t been significant votes on gay rights issues.  According to PoliticsPA’s Keegan Gibson, registered Republicans outnumber Democrats nearly 2-1 in the conservative area of his 81st district which encompasses most of Huntingdon County with parts of Mifflin and Blair.  In 2014, his district, slightly more moderate, will include all of Huntingdon, a smaller part of Mifflin and a part of Centre County in the suburbs of State College.

In 2006, Fleck won a four-way primary for Rep. Larry Sather’s seat.  Fleck was unopposed this year for re-election.

Local LGBT Advocates Received News Well

“I’m still the exact same person and I’m still a Republican and, most importantly, I’m still a person of faith trying to live life as a servant of God and the public.  The only difference now is that I will also be doing so as honestly as I know how.”

Executive Director of Equality Pennsylvania, who came out at age 39, states that “there’s an opportunity to have an open discussion in a new way.  There’s a real live voice to talk about it inside the Capitol, inside the Republican caucus.  I hope Fleck will want to work with us.”

Diffficult Journey to His Announcement

Representative Fleck is a graduate of Liberty University, a college founded by Rev. Jerry Falwell, known for his anti-gay politics.  “Coming out is hard enough,” he told the Huntingdon Daily News,  “but doing so in the public eye is definitely something I never anticipated.”

A former district executive for the Boy Scouts of America, from 1999 to 2004, Fleck described in an article for Huntingdon Daily News what a tough time he had trying to live a heterosexual life: “I sought out treatment from a Christian counselor, but when that didn’t work out, I engaged a secular therapist who told me point blank that I was gay and that I was caught up in being the perfect Christian rather than actually being authentic and honest.”

Last year, Fleck divorced his wife.  They have no children.