PA Lawmaker Says Vaccine Mandates Are Like Rape

PENNSYLVANIA -- A Pennsylvania lawmaker is refusing to back down after a social media post in which he suggested that being required to get the COVID-19 vaccine was like being raped.

Lebanon County State Rep. Russ Diamond made the original post several weeks ago, sharing a photo which stated "What's it called when someone sticks something into your body against your will? Or coerces you to let them?"

Above the photo, Diamond wrote the line "There's a word for that..."

The post had drawn more than 61,000 comments as of Friday. Many of them were constituents who responded in outage. To multiple individuals, Diamond responded with "learn to think."

The Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape said it was "outraged" and asked Diamond to take the post down. He has not.

"Diamond’s post dishonestly implies that the experience of vaccination is as invasive and traumatizing as sexual assault," the group said in part of a statement. "It is wrong to tokenize the trauma of sexual assault survivors for any reason, especially for such a cheap and inaccurate analogy. When sexual violence is minimized for the sake of attempted cleverness or dramatic effect, it only accentuates the trauma and pain that survivors and their families experience every day. It reminds them that some people in society and in power still don’t believe or understand them. Statements like these can silence and trigger victims while they suffer emotionally, physically, and psychologically."

Diamond has been a vocal critic of Gov. Tom Wolf's administration policies throughout the pandemic, including masks in schools. His social media posts for months take particular aim at the notion of forced vaccinations.

"Nobody's making you get the shot, just like nobody is forcing me to wear pants when I walk into the grocery store," one individual replied to Diamond's initial post. "I do it because we, as a society, have agreed that life is better for everyone when everyone wears pants in public, and that it's perfectly acceptable to keep me from entering without pants. Want to be in public? Wear pants and get inoculated against a deadly, highly-transmissible virus. It's not coercion; it's the social contract."

To this Diamond responded, "Where is this contract you signed?"

To another angered commenter, Diamond doubled down further.

"Learn to think without emotion," he wrote. "In this analogy, the vaccine is akin to sex. Voluntary engagement in either is fine. But forcing someone to do either is wrong. No means no."

Diamond has since introduced legislation, House Bill 262, which would allow employees to reject the vaccine in the workplace.

Gov. Wolf has mandated the vaccine or tests for certain state healthcare employees. President Joe Biden announced a mandate for some 100 million workers in certain settings this week.

"We've been patient, but our patience is wearing thin," Biden said. "And your refusal has cost all of us." The unvaccinated minority "can cause a lot of damage, and they are."