Caplis: "Do people tell jokes about gay people because gay sex is not natural? Yes."

Discussing a June 25 Rocky Mountain News front-page photo spread documenting Denver's 2007 gay pride parade, co-host Dan Caplis of 630 KHOW-AM called the News' decision to publish a photo of a 4-year old boy "in the arms of ... his gay mom and her girlfriend, and then naming him" a "gross obscenity" and "a political ploy" that "cannot help that child." Co-host Craig Silverman said, "And you don't want this 4-year-old to be the recipient of jokes and the teasing and the discrimination that goes with gay people," to which Caplis responded, "Do people tell jokes about gay people because gay sex is not natural? Yes."

Later in the June 26 broadcast of The Caplis & Silverman Show, Caplis reiterated his belief that homosexuality is "not natural," adding, "[T]hat's just the reality. And everybody knows it ... that's not the way we were built. And not the way we were built to have sex and to procreate."

From the June 26 broadcast of 630 KHOW-AM's The Caplis & Silverman Show:

CAPLIS: I don't understand how anybody can fail to see just that the gross obscenity in, in picturing a 4-year-old child in the arms of, OK, his gay mom and her girlfriend, and then naming him. How is that in any conceivable way, shape, or form in the best interests of that child? They used him as a political ploy. They used him for effect in the newspaper, and it cannot help that child, it can only hurt that child.

SILVERMAN: And why? Because there's discrimination against gay people. And you don't want this 4-year-old to be the recipient of jokes and the teasing and the discrimination that goes with gay people.

CAPLIS: No, there, there are two separate things going on here. Do people tell jokes about gay people because gay sex is not natural? Yes. Is there the kind of discrimination in employment or housing that we see against people of color? No.

[...]

SILVERMAN: The reality is that there's discrimination against gay people, which is why I think it's questionable to name this kid, this 4-year-old Cain. I talk about my 4-year-old, Sammy, all the time. You talk about your beautiful Caroline and Joey all the time. We don't have to be hiding their identity because we're safe and secure and not worrying about them being discriminated against because we're involved in heterosexual relationships. So it makes the point that [a previous caller's] making and that is obvious to most of society: Gay people are discriminated against.

CAPLIS: It -- in very minute numbers compared to race. Very minute numbers. But the bottom line is the reason that that kid may take some abuse, some ribbing, et cetera, is, though gays should receive full respect and, and be respected as people, it's not natural. That, that's just the reality. And everybody knows it. It, it -- that's not the way we were built. And not the way we were built to have sex and to procreate. And that doesn't make gay people any lesser. They should get full respect. But to use that kid as a political ploy on the front page of the paper, I just thought was terrible.

As Colorado Media Matters noted, during a discussion of Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Peter Pace's remarks that he thinks homosexual acts are "immoral" and comparable to adultery, Caplis said on his March 14 broadcast, "I don't think gay people are immoral ... At the same time, do I think the act itself is immoral? Yes. And I think the vast majority of people do." In fact, a Gallup poll shows that more than half of the respondents in a May 2006 survey said homosexuality "should be considered an acceptable alternative lifestyle."

—C.H.