A Republican legislator said that he would drown his own kids is if they turned out to be gay.
West Virginia delegate Eric Porterfield appeared on WVVA, an NBC affiliate, to talk about homophobic comments he made last week, where he said that LGBTQ people are “a modern day version of the Ku Klux Klan.”
He wore a red MAGA cap – along with a shirt and tie – during the interview.
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The reporter asked him what he would do if his son or daughter came out as gay.
Related: West Virginia Supreme Court rules antigay attack was not a hate crime
“Well, I would dress my daughter first, as I would take her for a pedicure, I’d take her to get her nails done, and see if she could swim,” Porterfield said, smiling.
“If it was my son, I would probably take him hunting, I would take him fishing, then I’d see if he could swim,” Porterfield, still smiling.
The reporter asked him to clarify. “I just want to make sure they could swim,” he repeated when questioned, continuing to grin.
She again asked him to clarify, and he said, “That’s it. I’d take them out to do activities.” He was still smiling, as if threatening to kill his own children were cute.
What would Del. Porterfield do if his son thinks he's gay or if his daughter thinks she's a lesbian? He would "see if they can swim." It's disturbing how quickly the WVVA reporter moves on. pic.twitter.com/ESb3EswfZz
— Jake Jarvis (@JakeJarvisWV) February 11, 2019
Last week, the West Virginia legislature was debating a bill that would have banned cities and counties from protecting LGBTQ people in their anti-discrimination laws, like Tennessee, North Carolina, and Arkansas currently do.
During the floor debate, Porterfield said that anti-discrimination laws were “bigoted,” “intolerant,” “discriminatory… nonsense” and “a travesty… against people who have either religious convictions or who don’t want to run their business the way a socialist-left agenda wants us to run it.”
He also used the word “faggot” during the debate while discussing Milo Yiannopoulos.
His state’s Republican party leadership denounced his comments, saying that they were “hateful, hurtful, and do not reflect the values of our country.”
