Eric Porterfield, a Republican in the West Virginia House of Delegates, compared members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community to the Ku Klux Klan on Friday amid facing threats and calls to resign over other recent bigoted remarks.

“The LGBTQ is a modern day version of the Ku Klux Klan, without wearing hoods with their antics of hate,” Mr. Porterfield said in an interview Friday morning, Charleston’s Gazette-Mail reported.

Mr. Porterfield also called the gay community a “terrorist group” and claimed that he is being “persecuted” by the gay community in retaliation for comments he made during a House Government Organization Committee meeting two days earlier, the newspaper reported.

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A representative for Mercer County in southwestern West Virginia, Mr. Porterfield came under fire following his speech during Wednesday’s committee meeting in support of an amendment that would have prohibited municipalities within the state from adopting non-discrimination ordinances protecting sexual orientation and gender identity.

“As legislators, I don’t think it’s our job to legislate behavior,” he said at the committee meeting. “This is discrimination against the First Amendment and religious liberty, and the LGBT is the most socialist group and they don’t protect gays. There are many gays they persecute if they do not line up with their social ideology.”

“They represent a socialist activist agenda,” Mr. Porterfield said Wednesday about LGBT organizations. “They are opponents of freedom.”

Belinda Biafore, the chairwoman of the state Democratic Party, subsequently issued a statement Friday afternoon seeking the Republicans ousting from the House of Delegates over his “hate-filled remarks and actions.”

“First of all, Delegate Porterfield needs to resign,” said Ms. Biafore. “West Virginia has no room for someone who expresses such hate. Let alone room for him to hold a public office where he is supposed to represent the people of West Virginia.”

Mr. Porterfield, on his part, claimed in a social media post later Friday that he had contacted law enforcement after continuing to face harassment from LGBT activists over his support of the amendment.

“These vicious monsters are proving that they are the most bigoted and discriminatory people in America,” Mr. Porterfield wrote on Facebook. “Though they try to intimidate and bully and try to strike fear to me and my family, we ask the Lord to help us stand tall against their persecution and their leftist minions within the legislature.”

Introduced by Delegate Dean Jeffries, a Republican representing Kanawha, the proposed amendment to House Bill 2699 was ultimately killed in committee.