West Virginia State Representative Eric Porterfield is in hot water after he compared the LGBTQ community to the Ku Klux Klan on Feb. 8.
The Republican representative made the inflammatory statement after speaking to a reporter regarding an anti-LGBTQ discrimination amendment. Porterfield was a staunch supporter of legislation crafted to enable LGBTQ discrimination in cities that have passed laws criminalizing it. This lead to a heated exchange between the bigoted lawmaker and Democrats.
In that committee meeting, Porterfield stated: “The amendment was bigoted, intolerant, and discriminatory after declaring that one of the ‘nonsense’ ordinances the cities passed was a ‘travesty.'”
“The LGBT is the most socialist group in this country,” he continued. “They do not protect gays. There are many gays they persecute if they do not line up with their social ideology.”
He even went as far as to argue about people being religiously persecuted and used the anti-gay word “f—–” while citing gay conservative, Milo Yiannopoulos who used the term on his speaking tour.
Delegate Danielle Walker, (D-Monongalia), responded to the incendiary statements saying: “Let me give you a few [words] that were said yesterday: behavior, socialist, persecute, agenda, public safety, freedom, protected classes, race, religion, age, sex, disability, harm, live and let live, inclusion, tolerance, intolerant, simple, compromise, values.”
“In the people’s House, my 17-year-old didn’t feel welcome because of one isolated instance. He wasn’t even in the committee room, thank God, because yes, my child has autism,” she said, “No, he would not have understood not to say a word in that meeting.”
After that “meeting,” Porterfield refused to walk back from his hateful rhetoric elaborating further: “The LGBTQ is a modern day version of the Ku Klux Klan, without wearing hoods with their antics of hate.”
He was even asked what would he do if he had a gay child.
“Well, I will address my daughter first. I would take her for a pedicure, I’d take her to get her nails done, and see if she could swim,” Porterfield says in a video. “If it was my son, I would probably take him hunting, I would take him fishing, then I’d see if he could swim.”
