‘Don’t forget. I’m 93 years old. I come from a different era. I hadn’t heard of anyone being homosexual until I joined the Navy.”

That was the excuse given this week by a nonagenarian supporter of Donald Trump for a remark he made six years ago in which he said gay people should be hanged.

In a post on Facebook in 2010, when the American Civil Liberties Union had filed a lawsuit in support of same-sex marriage, Dennnis Scranton, an electoral college voter who will be casting one of Montana’s three electoral college votes, wrote: “I think fruits are decorative. Hang up where they can be seen and appreciated. Call Wyoming for display instructions.”

Mr Scranton is one of Montana's three electoral college voters (Courtesy)

Raw Story point out that Wyoming was the state where Matthew Shepard was severely beaten, tied to a fence and left for dead in a hate crime just outside of Laramie in October 1998. He died six days later.

The Billings Gazette reported that Mr Scranton is actually aged 92, not 93. It said he was chosen to be a state electoral voter at a meeting of the Republican delegation in Billings on May 13. It said he was seated in a wheelchair at the back of the room and was present when he was chosen.

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Asked about the opinions he had expressed six years ago and a controversy that at the time cost one local Tea Party Association member his position, Mr Scranton did not appear to back away from his opinions.

Matthew Shepard was attacked and left for dead in Laramie, Wyoming, in 1998 (Wikipedia)

“Don’t forget, I’m 93 years old. I come from a different era. I hadn’t heard of anyone being homosexual until I joined the Navy, and then I encountered them,” Mr Scranton told the newspaper.

“We were raised with good morals.”

Republicans spent about 90 minutes meeting the candidates in May before in voting in the afternoon. Republican Janice Linn of Billings said Mr Scranton should be selected because he was in his 90s and a decorated World War II veteran.