A 14-year-old West Virginia radio show host is in the news after he denounced homosexuality as perverted and unnatural on his program, and blasted the likes of President Obama and Lady Gaga for “making kids gay.”

“Homosexuality is a belief; it is not mandatory in that person,” Caiden Cowger, host of the aptly named “Caiden Cowger Show,” told his listeners recently. He said that people should turn away from things like the “It Gets Better” campaign and become straight instead, because hey, being gay is immoral, not natural and something one chooses.

Cowger also criticized the 30 or so teens in his county who “decided” to become gay during middle school. “It’s sickening,” he said. “They were not homosexuals. … They just decided all of a sudden, ‘I think I’m going to be gay.’ ” (It is unclear when exactly Cowger believes most people discover their sexuality. In elementary school? Preschool? Never?)

The teen, who it appears learned his radio mannerisms from Rush Limbaugh and other conservative talk show hosts, claims he does not support bullying gays. However, he gets visibly upset when discussing how they have prevented him from preaching. “When you’re trying to teach them the word of God and they consider it bullying, yeah, I find that a big problem with not being allowed to convert other people to my religion,” he said, adding that in his religious view, homosexuality is wrong and anyone who follows the belief is condemned to hell.

The nearly five-minute anti-gay ramblings were picked up by TMZ and subsequently went viral.

Mediaite:

So why is this kid’s rant on the radio important to anyone outside of his county and his listeners? Well, for one, his three thousand or so fans on Facebook are a sign he has quite the following of people who will nod in solidarity at his points. But more important than the adults here are both Cowger– who, as a 14-year-old, could not have come to these conclusions from life experiences or any critical thinking he has done himself– and those “thirty or so” kids that Cowger actively encourages his peers to remind of their reserved place in Hell. Whoever is enabling this will have to answer for the consequences when Cowger and his generation grows up and acts according to their beliefs.

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— Posted by Tracy Bloom.

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