December 20, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – The Hallmark Channel’s decision to reinstate an ad featuring a lesbian kiss at a same-sex “wedding” isn’t enough to satisfy pro-LGBT activists and their allies, who are now demanding the network feature a homosexual romance in one of its films.
For years, the Hallmark Channel’s made-for-TV movies have been a source of wholesome comfort entertainment in contrast to Hollywood’s increasingly “woke” output, but that may be changing in the near future. Bill Abbott, CEO of Hallmark parent company Crown Media Family Networks, recently said the company is open to adding same-sex relationships to its films in the name of “broadening out the demographic.”
That openness was displayed soon afterward by a commercial for the wedding planning service Zola, featuring a same-sex “wedding” that ends with two women kissing. The ad sparked opposition from pro-family groups, including petitions against the ad by LifeSiteNews and One Million Moms.
Hallmark pulled the ad over the backlash but soon reinstated it under counter-pressure from LGBT groups and celebrities such as Ellen DeGeneres and William Shatner.
Having gotten the network to acquiesce to one demand, LGBT advocates are following up with others, The Daily Wire reported. In an op-ed at IndieWire, Jude Dry calls on the channel to “greenlight an LGBTQ script ASAP.”
“Hallmark has perfected its tried-and-true formula — generic, cozy, formulaic — over years, it wouldn’t be hard to simply swap one gender in its pile of un-produced scripts,” Dry argues. “Better yet, solicit an up-and-coming LGBTQ writer to craft the script, hire an LGBTQ director and cast the movie with LGBTQ actors. In an ideal world, an LGBTQ Hallmark movie would be exactly like every other Hallmark movie, except with queer actors playing the estranged twins who decide to swap lives.”
Conservatives have tried to warn Hallmark Channel that attempting to appease LGBT activists will only alienate core audience members in the name of appealing to people who either don’t watch anyway or will never accept their efforts as good enough. “After carefully building an extraordinarily successful niche market, Hallmark just told everyone in it to take a hike,” PJ Media’s Stephen Kruiser wrote.
Readers can click here to read, sign, and share LifeSiteNews’ petition urging Hallmark executives to “keep sex and sexual practices — including the promotion of homosexuality, transgenderism, etc. — out of your movies.”