SCETV showed "We are your Neighbors" earlier this month as part of its popular Southern Lens series, which airs twice a month and features stories on life in the South.

Produced by Sunhead Projects, "We are your Neighbors" is about the state's gay community. The goal of the program, according to the producers, is to promote acceptance through understanding.

Altman, R-Charleston, said the real goal of the documentary is to promote a "militant homosexual agenda." SCETV, as a public trust, was wrong to air it, he said.

"I thought it was just social, leftist propaganda that they had no business airing," he said. "They were actively promoting homosexuality as an OK thing to do."

Altman said that if SCETV can afford to produce such programs to influence the Legislature, then it can afford to have its budget cut. The agency runs on a budget of $12.7 million, down from $20.3 million in 2000-01.

"As soon as the session starts," he said, "I'm going after them."

Altman is wrong to think SCETV is promoting any agenda, agency President Maurice Bresnahan said.

"Our purpose is to provide an outlet for independent filmmakers and to give an outlook rarely seen on television," he said. "An analogy would be a librarian buying books for the bookshelf. 'We are your Neighbors' was just one 26-minute show out of 8,700 hours of programming. We are just presenting a point of view. This is just one book on a shelf of thousands of books."

This is not the first time Altman has taken issue with homosexuality. Most recently, he defeated an openly gay Democrat, Charlie Smith, in the Nov. 2 general election. The often-outspoken representative made an issue of Smith's sexual orientation in blunt fund-raising letters.

Altman also is working on a bill to strengthen the state's ban on same-sex marriage.

The Southern Lens series runs twice a month and features documentaries on everything from MoonPies to Holocaust survivors in South Carolina.

One documentary, "Sentencing the Victim," focused on the hardships victims endure during criminal trials. The movie, which featured a Charleston woman, is credited with spurring legislators to address shortcomings in the legal process to ease victims' burden.

All of the documentaries are independently financed and cost the state nothing. Altman said that doesn't matter.

"When South Carolina Education Television airs something, they take ownership of it," he said.

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