The Funniest “No Homo” Moment of 2017

During a committee discussion about land use, Pennsylvania Representative Daryl Metcalfe accused Pennsylvania Representative Matthew Bradford of being gay after he touched his arm to signal that he was talking first. The gesture severely offended Metcalfe, and he halted the meeting to accuse Bradford of being gay, which threw the whole meeting off track. This created an awkward environment for everyone in the meeting. Bradford is married to a woman and has four kids, Metcalfe’s fragile masculinity was shown in that moment.

Metcalfe has constantly restated his position on LGBTQ+ rights: opposes the idea of gay and lesbian people having the right to marry each other and has constantly demonized LGBTQ+ people. Hypermasculinity contributes to the homophobia shown by men. Men have been constantly criticized for displaying emotion and just being human. Any interactions that are not extremely masculine is seen as feminine. When guys are not exclusively masculine, one of them usually says, “no homo” to show that they are not ferociously homosexual men. Maybe the whole situation could have been avoided with a simple “no homo” instead of being a decent human being and respecting that the gesture did not mean that Bradford was desperately in love with Metcalfe.

Thankfully, most people found Metcalfe’s exclamation to be quite inappropriate and he has faced much opposition since it. The exclamation was a sign of a fragile masculinity and being insecure in his masculinity. Hypermasculinity teaches that males can only be masculine because being feminine is seen as less than. The incident between Bradford and Metcalfe was the best moment of the year because it not only exposes how hypermasculinity and homophobia are harmful characteristics for a person in office but it is also hilarious.