A West Virginia politician is facing pressure to resign after making a series of homophobic comments, including comparing the LGBT+ community to the Ku Klux Klan.

Eric Porterfield, a Republican member of the state’s House of Delegates, has claimed the LGBT+ community is a “terrorist group” that has “no care for diversity of thought”.

“The LGBTQ is a modern-day version of the Ku Klux Klan, without wearing hoods with their antics of hate,” Mr Porterfield, who is blind and a “born-again Baptist missionary”, told the Charleston Gazette-Mail.

In addition to the KKK comparison, Mr Porterfield used an anti-gay slur during a committee meeting over a proposed amendment to limit anti-discrimination protections for individuals who identify as LGBT+. The amendment did not pass.

Responding to the backlash over his anti-gay comments, Mr Porterfield appeared on a local radio station where he said that if either his son or daughter came out to him as gay, he would “see if she can swim...then I’d see if he can swim”.

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West Virginia’s Democratic Party (WVDP) swiftly criticised the Republican lawmaker’s comments and called for his resignation in a statement.

“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,” WVDP Chairwoman Belinda Biafore said.

She added: “His hate-filled remarks and actions speak volumes and so does the Republican Party’s silence. The Republican majority leadership needs to condemn these actions. Their silence is complicit and the people of West Virginia deserve better.”

Several Republicans also publicly condemned Mr Porterfield and his comments, including Mercer County Commissioner Greg Puckett.

Mr Puckett argued that Mr Porterfield’s anti-gay comments went against the teachings of the Bible.

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“As a Commissioner within Mercer County, I do not condone, nor accept this behaviour of anyone, let alone an elected official,” Mr Puckett wrote in a Facebook post. “Likewise, this form of antics in representation of my county is not inclusive to the people within,” Mr Puckett said in a Facebook post.

John Shott, a Republican delegate representing the same county as Mr Porterfield, also denounced the politician’s statements as “too extreme”.

“I don’t accept his categorization of that group nor do I think it’s productive to call anyone names when you are trying to advance the goals of the party,” Mr Shott told the Bluefield Daily Telegraph. “It’s not a productive approach to solving problems.”