The Hallmark Channel has now found itself caught in the crossfire between traditional conservatives and progressive activists for canceling an advertisement in which two lesbian women shared a kiss after One Million Moms launched a petition in protest.
As The Daily Wire reported on Sunday, the Hallmark Channel pulled from its platform an ad for the wedding planning and registry website Zola in response to a viral petition from the activist group One Million Moms, which was outraged over the presence of a lesbian wedding kiss. When pressed for comment, a spokesperson for Hallmark said the channel pulled the ad out of an ongoing policy to steer away from controversial content in favor of family entertainment. Critics of the decision have since been trashing Hallmark under the hashtag #BoycottHallmarkChannel.
“This is the lovely ad that [Hallmark Channel] pulled from their broadcast after conservatives complained,” tweeted Charlotte Clymer. “A simple kiss by lesbian newlyweds. Same-sex marriage has been the law of the land for four years. LGBTQ families are beautiful.”
“This actually has me genuinely angry. It’s disgusting and pathetic that Hallmark caved to a mob of trad snowflakes and spiked a perfectly innocuous ad. A slap in the face to gay people everywhere,” tweeted Brad Polumbo of the DC Examiner.
“Advertisers on [Hallmark Channel] should see this news and question whether they want to be associated with a network that chooses to bow to fringe anti-LGBTQ activist groups, which solely exist to harm LGBTQ families,” tweeted GLAAD.
“Dear [Hallmark Channel], this is the year 2019. Don’t you think we’ve had enough hatred and bigotry already? Why would you choose to spoil your reputation by giving in to the demands o bigoted idiots?” tweeted author Becca Patterson.
“Gentle reminder to all the conservative white snowflakes out there that Jesus was brown and he’d be perfectly fine with gay marriage but definitely not okay with caging children,” tweeted Eugene Gu, MD.
“Dear [Hallmark Channel], LGBTQ+ couples, families, and people are beautiful and we don’t have time to support networks who exclude us and cave to bigoted conservative groups,” tweeted activist Ryan Knight.
2020 presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg accused Hallmark of “censoring difference” without adding to the trending hashtag to boycott the company.
“Families are built on love – no matter what they look like,” tweeted the Mayor of South Bend. “Being ‘family-friendly’ means honoring love, not censoring difference. This truth will be more important than ever as we rebuild our nation into a place defined by belonging, not by exclusion.”
The Hallmark Channel has taken a tremendous amount of flack for the past month from both the Left and the Right. Prior to the One Million Moms petition, The Hollywood Reporter (THR) scolded the channel for not featuring enough racial and religious diversity during the “Countdown to Christmas” programming.
“Of the network’s record 24 original holiday movies this season, four of them have black leads,” reported THR. “And that’s down from last year, when five of its 21 original holiday movies had black leads.”
“Missing from Hallmark’s festive roster? Any other religion in the title,” the report later noted. “That’s especially interesting given that Hallmark last year announced that it would be producing two Hanukkah movies in 2019 – ‘Holiday Date’ (Dec. 14) and a ‘Double Holiday’ (Dec. 22). ‘Double Holiday‘ is a romance between a woman who is Jewish, while ‘Holiday Date’ features a Jewish guy pretending to be ‘Mr. Christmas.’”