Lewis also compared being gay to being addicted to alcohol or drugs (repjasonlewis/twitter)

A Republican member of the House of Representatives has compared gay people to criminals including rapists and murderers, it has emerged.

Jason Lewis, who is currently seeking re-election in Minnesota’s closely fought second congressional district, made the comments on his nationally syndicated radio programme The Jason Lewis Show in 2013.

He is far from the first Republican to have anti-gay remarks unearthed this year, after it was revealed last month that Missouri House nominee Hardy Billington said gay sex kills more people than smoking in a 2012 newspaper advert.

Lewis, who has also called policies which allow transgender students to use their bathroom or locker room of choice “an abomination,” publicised his offensive views while discussing same-sex marriage on the show.

Complaining about the Equal Protection Clause, which eventually led to equal marriage being legalised two years later, he told his listeners: “When we pass a law against rape, you’re not treating a rapist equal.

“When you pass a law against murderers, you’re not treating the New England Patriots equal,” he added, seemingly attempting a joke at the American Football team’s expense, BuzzFeed News has reported.

“The law, the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution, simply means this: that people who find themselves in similar circumstances must be treated in a similar way… you must discriminate against all smokers, you must discriminate against all rapists,” continued Lewis.

“So if the law says that we’re not going to allow three people to marry, then you’ve got to treat everybody the same way,” he said, deciding to also compare equal marriage to polygamy.

“No three people can marry. Same is true for gay marriage. It’s not discrimination. It’s not unconstitutional. The law discriminates all the time. It discriminates against behaviour.”

Lewis agreed with a caller who compared equal marriage to incest by asking if he could marry his dad, telling him: “Good point.”

He then compared gay people to drug and alcohol addicts, saying: “Maybe we oughtta carve out some rights for those people.”

The Minnesota representative also seemed to question whether gay people suffered from discrimination in the US, asking: “How is it possible that our gay friends have incomes that are much higher than the median?

“I’m a little confused there, if they’re a discriminated minority group.”

He proceeded to cast doubt on whether same-sex couples should have children, saying: “I’ll probably get in trouble for this, but I’m still not convinced that it’s a great idea for children to grow up with two mums or two dads.

“Call me a Neanderthal, I’m not saying it’s bad, I don’t know, there hasn’t been some longitudinal long-term studies on this but we’ve rushed to this judgement that growing up with two mummies is a wonderful experience.

“I don’t know, maybe it’s not so wonderful. Maybe it could harm the kid.”

In May, while she was running to represent California’s 44th Congressional district, Republican candidate Jazmina Saavedra live-streamed herself harassing a transgender woman, broadcasting the shocking incident on Facebook Live.

In the same month, 15-term Californian Republican congressman Dana Rohrabacher incurred a huge backlash after saying it was fine to refuse to sell houses to gay people.

And in June, Republican judge candidate Donald McBath said that gay people have “mental illness” and face “eternal damnation” if they continue with the “sin of sodomy.”