Responding to a caller who said, “I had to explain to my young son why these two men were holding hands the other day,” radio host Michael Savage stated, during the June 16 broadcast of The Savage Nation, “You've got to explain to the children ... why God told people this was wrong.” He went on to say, “You have to explain this to them in this time of mental rape that's going on. The children's minds are being raped by the homosexual mafia, that's my position. They're raping our children's minds.”

During a discussion about gay marriage with a previous caller, Savage said: “It's not a joke when you pervert an institution like marriage, which is in trouble enough. It's not a joke.” He added, “Our children are being destroyed by this.” He went on to say of gay marriage, “It's a very important story. The children don't know what to make of it. Children nine, 10 are saying, 'I'm gay.' They don't know what it even means.” He added: “It's a giant propaganda machine trying to pervert children.”

Talk Radio Network, which syndicates Savage's show, claims that Savage is heard on more than 350 radio stations. The Savage Nation reaches at least 8.25 million listeners each week, according to Talkers Magazine, making it one of the most listened-to talk radio shows in the nation, behind only The Rush Limbaugh Show and The Sean Hannity Show.

From the June 16 edition of Talk Radio Network's The Savage Nation:

SAVAGE: San Francisco, Tina, welcome to The Savage Nation.

CALLER: Well, you make a really good point, Michael, and you have a great show, but I still think that you're not wise in being so adamant about these gay marriages. What difference does it make what they do? You're going to work yourself to a big heart attack like Tim Russert and --

SAVAGE: No, I won't work myself into a big heart attack. I'll tell you why: because the truth will set me free. It always has.

CALLER: But --

SAVAGE: Aren't you tired of the propaganda that every newspaper you pick up today shows old, ugly women getting married?

CALLER: Well, as a matter of fact, yes, I think that should be a private thing. But I also think --

SAVAGE: Well, why do you suppose every newspaper in America is showing this story?

CALLER: They have an agenda, of course, but still --

SAVAGE: Well, I have an obligation as a social commentator to say enough is enough, I've had enough of it. Just as I had enough of the Tim Russert worship on Friday. I had enough of it. I had enough of Obama a year ago -- he looks like Alfred E. Neuman to me.

CALLER: It's a joke, whether you're gay or straight, it's mostly a joke, but the thing is we don't want you to get all --

SAVAGE: It's not a joke when you steal an institution as fragile as marriage and you pervert it with a mockery. It's not a joke. It's not a joke when you pervert an institution like marriage, which is in trouble enough. It's not a joke. Our children are being destroyed by this.

CALLER: Well --

SAVAGE: I disagree with you totally. It's a very important story. The children don't know what to make of it. Children nine, 10 are saying, “I'm gay.” They don't know what it even means. It's a giant propaganda machine trying to pervert children. That's my opinion.

Monterrey, California. Tom, what's you're opinion?

CALLER: Yes, I'm calling from the People's Republic of Monterrey, and I had to explain to my young son why these two men were holding hands the other day and he said, “Dad, didn't they say that that's wrong in the Bible?” And I said, “Yes, they did, and yes it's wrong” and yes to everything that he had to say about it. And I told him, I said, “That's the wrongest thing you've ever seen besides the rest of the politicians and the media and CNBC.” Because --

SAVAGE: You've got to try to explain to the children why the -- why God told people this was wrong. You've got to explain to them, to the children, how it twists everything. Just take them down to a duck pond and show them a boy duck and a girl duck and then show the ducklings and say to them, “There must be a boy duck and a girl duck for there to be babies.” It's the same with a dog, puppies come from a mother duck -- a mother pup, a mother dog. There needs to be a boy dog and a girl dog. You have to explain this to them in this time of mental rape that's going on. The children's minds are being raped by the homosexual mafia, that's my position. They're raping our children's minds.

CALLER: I'm not buying into it, which is -- I found was pretty neat, but, hey I enjoy your show, keep --

SAVAGE: Well, good, unless somebody else does. Well, OK, you don't care about it. To me it matters. To me it matters. It's just that the media is afraid of them or owned by them, and everyone's catering to them. It's like catering to Al Sharpton. You see the story that came out on him? You haven't seen the story all over the media? Can't report it, why? Because he's not a white man? So suddenly he's allowed to do things to companies like Jesse Jackson did for years -- without producing a product or a service? Just by threatening a boycott, they give him money? Well there was a name for it when Al Capone was around. I guess that's gone, gone with the wind, everyone's afraid in the corporate world, plus it's not their money anyway. They're not playing with their money, they're playing with your money. So the CEOs who run the companies do whatever they want to do with the money including buying off potential boycotts.

Zachary Aronow is an intern at Media Matters for America.