Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh has denied he ever likened the growing “acceptance of pedophilia” to gay marriage.

On his Monday show, Limbaugh said that there is a movement to “normalize pedophilia” and that his audience should not dismiss the trend like it did marriage equality.

“There is a movement on to normalize pedophilia, and I guarantee you your reaction to that is probably much the same as your reaction when you first heard about gay marriage,” Limbaugh told his radio listeners. “What has happened to gay marriage? It's become normal – and in fact, with certain people in certain demographics it's the most important issue in terms of who they vote for.”

“So don't pooh-pooh. There's a movement to normalize pedophilia. Don't pooh-pooh it. The people behind it are serious, and you know the Left as well as I do. They glom onto something and they don't let go.”

Limbaugh referred to a Guardian article in which the author wrote: “There is, astonishingly, not even a full academic consensus on whether consensual paedophilic relations necessarily cause harm.”

“They made the case that kids enjoy it, adults enjoy it; what's wrong with a little love?”

“I just want to remind you, now, when you first heard about gay marriage – and I don't mean to pick on gays. It's not what I'm saying. It's just something that was such a tremendous departure from accepted norms of the day. When you first heard about gay marriage, you pooh-poohed it.”

On Tuesday, Limbaugh complained that he was being unfairly attacked by his critics, saying he was merely quoting “from a liberal newspaper in the UK, the Guardian. That's all I did.”

EqualityMatters.org's Justin Berrier called Limbaugh's denial “dishonest.”

“Limbaugh continued to justify his comments by claiming he only used gay marriage as an example of a changing societal norm in order to predict the reaction to the story among his listeners,” Berrier wrote. “But his choice of marriage equality as a comparable issue plays into the persistent attempt to link homosexuality to pedophilia, especially among members of the right-wing media.”