~UNCARING POLITICIAN? OR DRAMA QUEEN?

ANOTHER OPEN LETTER TO DEMOCRATIC PENNSYLVANIA STATE REPRESENTATIVE BRIAN SIMS

6/1/15

Dear Brain,

I was really disheartened and I know that perhaps it was harsh some of the things that I said but I felt that you could have sent a representative to pick up your award. You’ve totally taken a stance that doesn’t seem to be very representative of the people and that you not responding to me makes me think that you obviously don’t care for your constituents, for people, or for anyone, and that you are only out for your own self and if you can’t continue to respond to this then I will continue to believe that you yourself are not really a man of the people, you don’t really represent your district and such as that.

So I would appreciate a response so that we can deal with this situation. You backing out certainly was not what I felt was appropriate but more importantly the fact that you did not respond in what I would feel would be in a civil manner by saying you would send a representative on your behalf to pick up the award that you even cared. I look forward to your response and of course if you choose not to respond then the media can choose to look at the situation as you not caring.

Sincerely,

John A. DeBartola

President, Keystone Alliance/Gaylife Newsletter

A Politician: Is He Confused? Shocking Breaking of Contract:

An Open Letter to Democratic Pennsylvania State Representative Brian Sims

5/15/13

Brian Sims

Dear Subscribers,

We were shocked to receive the following letter from Democratic Pennsylvania State Representative Brian Sims:

Sims, Brian (BSims@pahouse.net)

Wed 5/08/13 10:26 AM

CC: Lane, Mason (MLane@pahouse.net); Mike Fleck (Mfleck@pahousegop.com)

John,

It is with a lot of regret that I'm afraid I will not be able to attend the Spirit Award presentation on June 13th.

In the lead up to Jason Collins' coming out, a small group of LGBT advocates that had been working with Nike to get them to support LGBT athletes, has now been invited to a private summit at Nike headquarters to discuss Nike becoming the lead sponsor of any out athletes and promoting non-discrimination within the leagues and ownership. In short, it's the type of long-shot that has become a reality and it is not something I can miss. I've accepted the invite and I'll be flying to Portland for the summit on Wednesday, June 12th.

I've spoken briefly with Rep. Fleck about this unexpected invite and I wanted to make you aware as soon as possible.

Again, I am truly sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

Brian
Rep. Brian Sims (D-182)
House of Representatives
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
www.PaHouse.com/Sims<http://www.pahouse.com/Sims>

We certainly wonder if he’s only thinking of higher office and of other aspects or does he truly support the more local concerns? Does he care? He certainly has passed up the opportunity of his agreement to be here and to assist with these awards. Now at the last minute he has backed out. Is that because it’s a better opportunity for him? Is it because he knows that he doesn’t have to be concerned about his constituents? Or is he doing it because he is concerned for his constituents? So the questions are abound. Why? Why back out at the last minute? Why is this opportunity abounded itself as it has? What opportunities will this bring for everyone? And as Representative Brian Sims realizing that as he meets these gay athletes he has a better chance for his own social life? Does he have a better chance of meeting these athletes because as he prepares himself to perhaps move forward and run for even higher office is he looking for those donors now?

These are some of the questions that have been proposed by a number of people when they heard of his decision not to attend the awards ceremony, to not be involved as he had originally promised. It is sad when these things occur but it is even sadder when we begin to wonder why.

So these and many other questions are before us this day and we hope you, the membership, perhaps even have more or other questions on your mind as to what is going on and what should be happening. We hope to hear further from Representative Brian Sims and of course from you, our valued membership.

Why is this occurring? What will it mean? Will it mean that the paper will decide not to cover this event? Will it mean that this is on the back burner? What does it all really mean? Most importantly, what does it mean for Representative Brian Sims? And only he can tell us what that will be. Is he willing to give us a report of this great meeting that he is so has to go too that he feels so importantly headed too that he will leave the home state commitments behind him? We can only hope that we’ll know further.

So at this time one question we have is Representative Brian Sims willing to share with us in a monthly column what’s going on in the state legislature as he sees it? Stay tuned. We’ll see if he answers.

Sincerely,

John A. DeBartola

President, Keystone Alliance/Gaylife Newsletter

CC: Rep. Sims Aid Mason Lane (MLane@pahouse.net); 2013 Spirit Award Winner State Representative Mike Fleck (Mfleck@pahousegop.com), 2013 Spirit Award Keynote Speaker and Spirit Award Winner 2012 State Senator John N. Wozniak