The Christian evangelist writer and producer of a scripted movie about homosexuality says he believes YouTube removed the film's trailer because the company "didn't like what they saw."
Ray Comfort, writer and executive producer of the new film "Audacity," said the trailer was removed from YouTube on Sunday after amassing 130,000 views, reported The Blaze.
YouTube cited a violation of its policy against spam, scams and commercially deceptive content.
The film presents a biblical view of homosexuality, and Comfort told The Blaze that nothing in the trailer or film should be considered in violation of YouTube's policy.
"Watch the two-minute trailer and see if you can find spam, a scam or anything commercially deceptive," Comfort said.
Rather, Comfort says it is more likely that someone at YouTube viewed the trailer, did not agree with its contents, and decided to have it removed.
The clip depicts people changing their minds about whether it is possible to be born gay, which Comfort notes is a highly controversial topic that can upset some folks.
"The foundation for the gay argument is that homosexuals (like people of color) are born that way, and like someone's race, should never be discriminated against," he told The Blaze. "The trailer shows a number of people changing their minds about homosexuals being born that way because I asked them two simple questions. It's pretty unnerving for the 'I can't help being gay' argument, and so they decided to censor us."
Comfort suggested an alternate interpretation of the removal: "Or to put it another way, they discriminated against us because of our religion."
"All we want is to be treated fairly," he added.
Comfort said he has not spoken to anyone at YouTube about the matter. The company issued the following statement to The Blaze, declining to specifically address the removal of Comfort's traile:.
"While we don't comment on individual videos, YouTube does have strict spam and metadata policies. If a video is flagged by our community that violates these policies it is removed."
A representative for YouTube said in a separate statement, "Videos are only removed if they violate our policies."
Comfort said he hopes the "Audacity" trailer will eventually be allowed back on YouTube, but for now, he encourages people to watch the following version hosted on Vimeo.
