On the October 29 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Michael Savage said of a California ballot initiative that would amend the state constitution to ban gay marriage, "[T]here's a ballot initiative on homosexual marriage that is more important than you could imagine. It's called Proposition 8, and you must vote 'yes' if you're sane. If you're insane, hate the family, hate man and woman, hate your mother and father, hate the Bible, hate the church, and hate the synagogue, of course you're in favor of 'no' on Proposition 8." The next day on his program, Savage stated: "[T]he people who don't have families don't understand that, as difficult as family life is, life is impossible without it. They don't understand that. They don't understand what the family unit is. It's the strongest bond on Earth, which is why homosexual marriage is such a threat to civilization itself."
Media Matters for America has documented Savage's history of making on-air anti-gay statements. For example, on October 1, Savage asserted that “the government has no right to force people to accept homosexual marriage. It is why the West is dying. It is why we're melting down as a nation.” During that broadcast, Savage also said of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom: “Today it's the gays, tomorrow it'll be a man marrying a horse. If he could get elected saying that a man should be allowed to marry a mule -- a donkey or a mule, he would do that, too, saying it's a civil right to marry a mule -- that any man should have the right to have sex with an animal, because that's his right and the animal isn't complaining about it.” Media Matters also noted that on his June 16 show, Savage said, “It's not a joke when you pervert an institution like marriage, which is in trouble enough,” and added, “Our children are being destroyed by this.”
Additionally, as Media Matters noted, Savage formerly hosted a television program on MSNBC but was fired after he described a caller as a “sodomite” and told him to “get AIDS and die.” Savage has also repeatedly referred to “the homosexual mafia,” claimed that “the homosexual dance of death” is the “seminal issue of our time,” compared gays to “drug addicts,” and repeatedly called gay parenting “child abuse.”
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 October 29 broadcast of Talk Radio Network's The Savage Nation:
SAVAGE: Now, in the state of California, which leads both for the good and the bad in many ways politically, there's a ballot initiative on homosexual marriage that is more important than you could imagine. It's called Proposition 8, and you must vote “yes” if you're sane. If you're insane, hate the family, hate man and woman, hate your mother and father, hate the Bible, hate the church, and hate the synagogue, of course you're in favor of “no” on Proposition 8, which is where most of the Democrat politicians are, because they are exactly what you think they are.
From the October 30 broadcast of The Savage Nation:
SAVAGE: What it is, is that a family man knows that life is filled with briars and stones and this and that, and that the -- they have -- the people who don't have families don't understand that, as difficult as family life is, life is impossible without it.
CALLER: Yes, yes. On Daryl --
SAVAGE: They don't understand that. They don't understand what the family unit is. It's the strongest bond on Earth, which is why homosexual marriage is such a threat to civilization itself.
