Lawyers for the conservative US evangelist Franklin Graham are seeking to force UK entertainment venues, who have come under pressure from LGBTQ+ campaigners, to reverse their decisions to cancel his appearances.

Graham, who is planning to tour the UK in May with a message of “biblical truth”, said he was “being denied [a platform] because of religious beliefs”.

Speaking to the Guardian on a preliminary visit to London, he said: “We had contracts signed and, in some cases, deposits paid. I haven’t broken any laws. We are being denied because of religious beliefs and our faith. It’s a freedom of religion issue and also a free speech issue.

“We have attorneys trying to get the venues to reverse their decisions. We certainly have a legal position we’re standing on.”

Asked whether he might sue the venues, he said: “Legal options are always difficult, and I’d prefer not to do that.”

The commercial venues – in Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Glasgow, Birmingham, Newport, Milton Keynes and London – cancelled bookings after protests by LGBTQ+ activists, petitions and requests from local councils. Many said statements Graham had made were incompatible with their values, and that his appearance would be divisive, could be disruptive or lead to a breach of the peace.

Graham has long been a controversial figure, viewed by many, including some British evangelicals, as homophobic, Islamophobic, and politically extreme. His attempt to force venues to allow him to appear came as a group of evangelical Christians in the UK wrote a letter to the Guardian saying they were unwilling to support his tour.

In the letter, 17 evangelicals from across the country said: “We find it hard to reconcile his public and partisan statements on such issues as immigration, poverty, gun control and Israel with our understanding of the teaching and values of Jesus Christ.”

Stating that they did not support calls to ban or silence Graham, they added: “However, we hope that fellow evangelicals will withdraw their support.”

Other Christian leaders have already questioned his trip and accused him of stoking up division. In November, the Rt Revd Dr Pete Wilcox, bishop of Sheffield, said he could not support the tour and added: “Mr Graham’s rhetoric is repeatedly and unnecessarily inflammatory and in my opinion represents a risk to the social cohesion of our city.”

Graham – the son of the charismatic evangelical preacher Billy Graham, whose 12-week London “crusade” drew more than 2 million people in 1956 – said he “would not accept being pushed into churches and being denied outside venues” to deliver his message.

A prominent supporter of Donald Trump, the 67-year-old has said that gay people are “the enemy” and responsible for a “moral implosion”, and that Islam is “an evil and very wicked religion”. He told the Guardian that his message was “one of hope” and that he was “not condemning people” but said: “Many people don’t want to be told their life offends God.”

He added: “I’m not fighting gay people – I don’t demonstrate against them, I don’t tell people not to go to their events, I leave them alone. They are not my enemy. But they certainly stand against God.”

He said he saw the UK as “fertile ground” for his message. “A lot of people know nothing about God, know nothing about Jesus Christ other than he’s a curse word … I’m coming to the UK to encourage churches to teach the word of God.” Pastors should not be “ashamed” of teaching the Bible, he added.

Asked why he condemned homosexuality but supported a president who had committed adultery, he said: “I don’t support his affairs in the past and some of what he has said [about women] … But I think the president has moved on from that lifestyle as a New York playboy.”

Last year, Graham urged Pete Buttigieg, the Democratic presidential hopeful who is gay and in a same-sex marriage, to repent. “Mayor Buttigieg says he’s a gay Christian. As a Christian I believe the Bible which defines homosexuality as sin, something to be repentant of, not something to be flaunted, praised or politicized,” he tweeted.

Graham told the Guardian that Buttigieg was a “very smart politician, maybe the smartest of all the Democrat [contenders]”. He added: “For me personally, I would not vote for someone who has that kind of relationship because it’s a sinful relationship … But I don’t tell people how to vote, I never have.”