(CNN) A member of the West Virginia House of Delegates is facing bipartisan criticism for a string of anti-LGBT statements, but the Republican lawmaker doesn't appear to be backing down.

Delegate Eric Porterfield, who represents West Virginia's 27th district, has a history of anti-LGBT stances. But things came to a head last week during a House meeting over a proposed amendment to an anti-LGBT-discrimination bill.

During the February 6 meeting Porterfield called the bill, which would include LGBT people as a protected class under the state's Human Rights Act, "bigoted," "intolerant" and "discriminatory."

"The LGBT is the most socialist group in this country," he continued, according to the Charleston Gazette-Mail . "They do not protect gays. There are many gays they persecute if they do not line up with their social ideology."

Porterfield has previously framed pushes for LGBT protections as a violation of free speech.