Spelling-challenged ND Republican blasts same-sex marriage ruling as ‘victory for the METALLY ILL!!!!!’

North Dakota Republicans are backing away from a fellow GOP lawmaker who hailed last week’s same-sex marriage court ruling as a victory for the mentally ill.

State Rep. Dwight Kiefert (R-Valley City) wrote what he described as a sarcastic Facebook post Friday, after the ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges was issued, reported Inforum.

"Yea, gay marriage is legal in all 50 states. Great victory for the METALLY ILL!!!!!" Kiefert said in a post littered with spelling and grammar mistakes.

“Oh, but wait, homisexuals were taken off the mentally ill list in 1973…. Anybody know why?” the lawmaker added. “I’ll give you a clue, not because of any study o research. Google it!!”

A researcher who has studied heterosexual attitudes toward LGBT people said valid research had thoroughly debunked homosexuality as a mental illness.

Kiefert, who was among the lawmakers who objected to a Muslim delivering a benediction to the legislature on Ash Wednesday, admitted he was neither a doctor nor a psychiatrist -- but he still leans toward the belief that homosexuality was a mental illness.

"I don't think that it's normal," he told the website. "You can't reproduce. I mean, a man and a woman is what it takes to make a child."

House Majority Leader Al Carlson (R-Fargo) distanced himself from the lawmaker and his comments.

"Dwight speaks for himself,” Carlson said. “He has a lot of strong opinions.”