A Christian group is claiming it has been denied access to broadcast a documentary special on the “radical homosexual agenda” titled Speechless: Silencing the Christians.

The American Family Association (AFA) says two broadcasters, one in Grand Rapids, Michigan (WOOD-TV) and another in Columbus, Ohio (WSXY – This TV), have refused to air their one-hour special.

“There's a real threat to our First Amendment and free-speech rights because Christians are being shut down and shut out and shut up by the very people who say they champion freedom of speech,” AFA president Tim Wildmon told the Christian-based website One News Now.

Speechless is a controversial anti-gay documentary that has drawn protest from gay and lesbian rights groups. AFA marketing materials say the program will “reveal the truth about the radical homosexual agenda and its impact on the family, the nation and religious freedom.”

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), a media watchdog group, protested the special. In a blog post, the group said that the special was “designed to perpetuate a climate of hostility towards our community and to create a culture where we are less safe, less secure, and where our families are put in harm's way.”

“Make no mistake,” Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay rights advocate, said in a statement. “This is the opening salvo in a campaign designed to denigrate LGBT Americans and deny us our basic rights.”

“Just as our community is at a point where measures protecting millions of American heads to Congress and a willing president, the AFA unleashes 60 minutes of lies and distortions to scare voters. The AFA and its allies have never been 'speechless' when it comes to promoting their own agenda, and that's driving a wedge in the very places where LGBT Americans work, live and even pray.”

The program, an edited down version of a 14-episode series that initially aired on the INSP Network, is hosted by conservative talk show host Janet Parshall.

In the documentary, the AFA asserts that proposed federal hate crime legislation would outlaw religious speech, employment protection laws force churches to hire gays and lesbians, that gay men and women are largely responsible for HIV/AIDS and all STDs, and that gay marriage hurts the family because it deprives children of a mother or a father.

“This video outrageously promotes spiritual violence against LGBT people,” said Harry Knox, director of the Human Rights Campaign's Religion & Faith Program. “Despite what the AFA claims, a growing number of mainstream denominations have endorsed hate crime legislation, including the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church USA and the Episcopal Church USA.”

The Grand Rapids Press reported on Thursday that WOOD-TV 8, the Grand Rapids, Michigan broadcaster, had decided not to air Silencing. And One News Now reported that WSXY 6.2 in Columbus, Ohio had had a sudden change of heart and would not broadcast it either.

“It's ironic that the very issue we're bringing up – that Christians are being rendered speechless when they talk about this issue [of gay rights] – is actually happening to us when it comes to the program itself,” Wildmon said.

But the special has aired in smaller markets such as Traverse City, Michigan (WPBN – NBC), Toledo, Ohio (WUPW – FOX), Charlotte, North Carolina (WJZY – The CW), and Greenville, South Carolina (WSPA – CBS).

The Greenville station manager issue an apology after the program aired.