One Direction fans have blasted Liam Payne for allegedly being homophobic by excluding gays and lesbians at a recent concert.

While introducing a song at a recent 1D gig in Ohio, the singer said: “This is my favourite song off the last album, and it is about trying to find that number one woman of your life… which none of you can relate to, because most of you are girls.

“Except for the boys in here, you know what I’m talking about.”

Some fans perceived this as Payne deliberately not acknowledging lesbian fans.

@Real_Liam_Payne you should really acknowledge the fact that what you said was homophobic girls can like girls liam ur better than this

— ~bby beansprout~ (@pinkiezain) August 19, 2015

@Real_Liam_Payne homophobic ass disrespect me and tons of 1d fans like this with your heteronormative lame ugly ass https://t.co/lxdT10w9TF — maddie (@migrainemaddie) August 19, 2015

@Real_Liam_Payne It’s homophobic to assume that girls can’t like other girls or find their dream girl :/

— ~bby beansprout~ (@pinkiezain) August 19, 2015

    Of course, plenty of Directioners were quick to defend their heartthrob.  

EVERYONE RELAX @Real_Liam_Payne DIDNT MEAN IT IN A HOMOPHOBIC WAY.. HE WAS JUST TALKING AND NOT THINKING CALM TF DOWN — anna grace♡ (@annakleeburg) August 19, 2015

if anyone takes what @Real_Liam_Payne says about girl almighty to the heart, go somewhere pls. Because we know he is not homophobic ????

— ☼PCD//Sydney☼ (@Syddeyyyy) August 19, 2015

Liam himself then weighed in on the argument with a long winded Twitter rant claiming that he is not homophobic, and that his comments were just misunderstood.

This isn’t the first time that Payne has been criticised for homophobic actions. Last year he landed himself in some hot water over tweeting his admiration to Duck Dynasty’s star Willie Robertson, who likened gay sex to bestiality.