A Christian pressure group with strong ties to the Republican Party has claimed that gay people are trying to “reintroduce slavery”.

The disgusting smear comes from the American Family Association, a Christian non-profit which claims to “promote the biblical ethic of decency in American society”.

The claim was made after a Kentucky court tossed out a discrimination case against a T-shirt printer who had refused to make shirts for a local LGBT Pride event.

The judge in the case accepted the business owner’s argument that his religion prevents him from making pro-LGBT messages.

In its declaration of victory, the AFA branded the discrimination case a “gay effort to reintroduce slavery in the South”.

The group said: “For the government to force someone to do work that violates his conscience is nothing less than tyranny. And for a man to be compelled under threat of punishment to perform work against his will is slavery.

“The reality is that the LGBT lobby is the reincarnation of some of the worst elements of the mindless prejudice of the Old South in its irrational venom toward people (Christians) who are not like them. The rainbow flag is the new Confederate flag. It is as much a symbol of bigotry as that flag ever was in the minds of the left.

“Bottom line: in Frankfort, Kentucky, homosexual activists tried to reintroduce slavery to the Deep South.

“They failed in the attempt. And the Constitution’s protections for religious liberty and freedom of speech were upheld. Let’s pray that this court will be just the first of many to protect our first freedom against the tyranny of the left.”

The right-wing group has strong ties to members of the Republican Party, and has previously funded free trips to Israel for GOP lawmakers.

Republicans were invited on an AFA-funded trip in 2015, with senior Republicans Reince Priebus and Sean Spicer collaborating with the group to organise the trip.

Serendipitously, both Mr Priebus and Mr Spicer now just so happen to be very senior figures in the Trump White House.

AFA radio host Bryan Fischer, who penned the ‘slavery’ blog post, regularly makes disturbing extremist anti-gay comments.

While representing the AFA he has blamed gay people for the Holocaust and claiming that freedom of religion only applies to Christians.

Though he has even blamed floods on gay people – it is the first time he has been linked to white supremacists.

Commenting on the Boy Scouts of America’s decision to allow gay members, Fischer said that the organisation should be renamed the “Boy Sodomisers of America”.