Wednesday, December 18, 2019

The Doc Project

'I'm free': How Canada's Rainbow Railroad helped a Barbados couple fleeing persecution find peace

It's illegal to be gay in 72 nations, and in several it can be a death sentence, according to LGBTQ charity

CBC Radio · 
Jane, right, and Patricia are pictured in late July in their Toronto apartment, which was made possible by a Rainbow Railroad volunteer and donor. (Acey Rowe/CBC)

Listen to the full episode28:01
With just their knapsacks, Jane and Patricia fled Barbados for a new life in Canada last winter.
Early one January morning, a neighbour's son had thrown a Molotov cocktail into the couple's home in the Caribbean country where hate crimes against LGBTQ people are common and being gay can be punishable by life imprisonment. It wasn't the first time he had gone after them, they told The Doc Project.
Jane and Patricia — pseudonyms to ensure their safety — were unhurt, but say police interviewed the man and didn't charge him.
Rainbow Railroad, a Toronto-based organization that relocates LGBTQ refugees from nations where they are at risk, was in the process of preparing the couple's relocation, but decided to expedite their move after the fire. (Travel details are kept confidential to protect the people and the charity's work.)
The couple, who are in their late 20s, arrived at Toronto's Pearson airport late on Jan. 29 — about a week after the attack — and emerged from immigration hours later tired, nervous but excited.
"It was the best thing for our safety and our well-being," Jane said.
At arrivals, they were greeted by Devon, Rainbow Railroad's programs manager, who handed them their new parkas and mittens.

Jane, right, and Patricia clasp hands against a rainbow flag hanging on a window in their Toronto apartment. On coming to Canada, Jane said, 'It was the best thing for our safety and our well-being.' (Acey Rowe/CBC)
"OK, let's go grab a cab, and we'll take you to warm beds," said Devon, who requested that only her first name be used for her own safety and for the security of the people she assists. 
As Jane and Patricia left the airport, they tentatively reached for each other's hands, but unaccustomed to public displays of affection, they quickly let go.

Thousands request help

Their story is not unique. Rainbow Railroad receives thousands of requests for assistance given that it's illegal to be gay in 72 countries, according to the Human Dignity Trust, a charity that defends the human rights of LGBTQ people. In several of those nations, such as Iran, Saudi Arabia and Somalia, individuals can be sentenced to death. 
In 2018, the organization received more than 1,300 requests for relocation and assisted nearly 200 people from 16 countries. Most were from the Caribbean, and many came from the Middle East, North Africa, Eastern Europe, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.
This year, Rainbow Railroad got more than double the requests, with more than 3,000 requests resulting in about 200 relocations as of Nov. 30, Devon said.
In the past, most of the people Rainbow Railroad helped would go to countries in Europe. But with borders getting tighter and anti-immigrant tensions rising, more are coming to Canada. 
Next year, the federal government plans to increase the number of privately sponsored LGBTQ refugees from 15 to 50 a year through a separate initiative called the Rainbow Refugee Assistance Partnership. Originally a pilot project, Rainbow Railroad, was actively involved in its renewal.

Rainbow Railroad, a Toronto-based charity that relocates LGBTQ refugees from nations where they are at risk, receives thousands of requests for assistance each year given that it's illegal to be gay in 72 countries. (Philip Leung/CBC)

'I couldn't hide it anymore'

At about the age of 11, Jane said she knew she was gay.
"I used to dress like a tomboy — more masculine. But it was hard on my family," she said. "Barbados is a very, say, Christian upbringing."
She kept it a secret for as long as she could, but eventually her family figured it out.
"I couldn't hide my appearance. I couldn't hide it anymore."
After a family member walked in on her and a friend, Jane said she had to leave her home and move in with her grandmother — the only relative at the time who was OK with her being gay.
At 16, she was arrested and charged for having sex with another teen girl, she said. 
"I'd never seen so many guns in my whole life, handcuffing me and treating me like I'm a criminal," she recalled.
"I should be free to express who I am in any way," said Jane, who was sentenced to six months of probation. "We are all born with rights. You're free to do whatever you want to. I should be free to do the same, but it's by the laws. You can be charged. You can be locked up for it."  
I was at the end. I can't take it anymore. It was too much.- Jane, on her decision to seek Rainbow Railroad's assistance
About four years ago, Jane met Patricia, who endured her own share of difficulties in Barbados, including sexual harassment by men at work, homophobic slurs and getting jumped.
When Jane decided to seek Rainbow Railroad's help, she was at a breaking point. She had heard about the charity through friends and looked it up online.  
In September 2018, Jane sent an email and got a response asking her for details about her life and her partner. 
Rainbow Railroad is diligent about ensuring people are who they say they are — not just that they're really in trouble — but that they are, in fact, gay, Devon said. It's all part of protecting the underground routes. 

The couple embraces in their Toronto apartment. (Acey Rowe/CBC)
When they got the offer to come to Canada last December, Jane and Patricia talked it over. 
Patrica wasn't sure at first. She's close to her mother who knows she's lesbian and is supportive. But when her mother told her to go, her decision got a lot easier.
Jane said if Rainbow Railroad hadn't come through for her, she probably would have committed suicide.
"I was at the end. I can't take it anymore. It was too much," she said, referring to the horrible things that kept happening.

Getting by on the kindness of strangers

Rainbow Railroad's mandate is to get people out of danger and move them somewhere safe. It doesn't do extensive settlement work. 
During the couple's first few weeks in Canada, they were handed off to a patchwork of other organizations, including Legal Aid Ontario and Toronto's The 519 community centre.
"We have to keep moving, and the organizations that are here in Toronto that support newcomers are the ones that pick up where we leave off," Devon said.
Jane and Patricia moved four times and spent some time at a Toronto shelter before moving to a small apartment in the city where they currently live. 
They get by on the kindness of strangers, community organizations and a small government stipend — all while they wait to be granted work permits. 
Their ground-floor apartment was made possible by Troy, a Rainbow Railroad volunteer and donor, who owns the unit and also sends the couple money every week. 
Jane and Patricia have visited Niagara Falls and even participated in Toronto's Pride parade.
They rode on the back of Rainbow Railroad's float where Devon said they shared a kiss in front of the crowd. 
And the couple, who recently got engaged, are no longer afraid to hold hands.
"I'm free over here, and I'm happy. That's all that counts," Jane said. "We made it."
To hear the documentary "The Rainbow Railroad," tap or click the Listen link at the top of this page. This documentary was co-produced with the BBC World Service.

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Tech giants sued over 'appalling' deaths of children who mine their cobalt

Apple, Microsoft, Dell, Tesla and Google's parent company, Alphabet are named in the lawsuit

CBC Radio · 
A class-action lawsuit accuses tech giants of using exploitative child labour in cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo. (Kenny Katombe/Reuters)
Listen6:49
An international advocacy group has launched a lawsuit against some of the world's largest tech companies for the deaths and injuries of child miners in Congolese cobalt mines. 
International Rights Advocates brought the case on behalf of 14 Congolese families whose children were killed or injured while mining for cobalt. The metal is key ingredient in the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that power most electronic devices. 
The defendants named in the suit include Apple, Microsoft, Dell, Tesla and Google's parent company, Alphabet.
The lawsuit accuses those companies of "knowingly benefiting from and aiding and abetting the cruel and brutal use of young children." It has not been tested in court.  ​​
Siddharth Kara, a public policy lecturer at Harvard Kennedy School, has been looking into the conditions at Congolese cobalt mines for years. His research is the foundation of the lawsuit.
He spoke to As It Happens host Carol Off about what he witnessed during his research. Here is part of their conversation.
Has anyone ever tried this before — suing a tech giant on behalf of children working in mines?
This is a landmark case. No one has ever, at least prior to Dec. 6, 2019, tried to sue the largest tech companies in the world on behalf of the children in the Congo who mine their cobalt.
A child and a woman break rocks extracted from a cobalt mine at a copper quarry and cobalt pit in Lubumbashi, Congo. (Junior Kannah/AFP/Getty Images)
Can you tell us some of the stories you have heard, some of the things that you have found out about these children who are mining cobalt?
The research I've done ... has yielded some of the most heartbreaking, appalling and utterly unimaginable levels of exploitation and suffering of any sector that I've researched in almost two decades of research into slavery and child labour.
The peasant population, and the children in particular, are eking out a sub-human existence, caked in toxic filth and grime as they mine for the cobalt that is used in every lithium-ion rechargeable battery on the planet.
And I think the worst stories I heard — and I heard far too many of these — involved young children and young men who would dig tunnels to find the larger cobalt deposits, some of these up to 100 feet deep, and then these tunnels just would collapse and bury alive everyone inside.
And you were actually there doing your research at a time when one of these tunnels collapsed on a bunch of people, including children. Is that right?
It's probably one of the most haunting and painful days of all my research.
I was doing research near Lake Malo, which is not too far outside of the city of Kolwezi, and documenting some children when we received word that a tunnel had collapsed barely 100 metres from where I was standing.
We rushed to the site. It had already been blocked off by Congolese military. Family members were swarming in, swooning and howling with with terror for any word of survivors.
It didn't take long before we received word that there were 63 people in that tunnel, and 63 people buried alive that day.
Kara says during his research a tunnel at one cobalt mine collapsed and killed 63 people. (Kenny Katombe/Reuters)
The children who are working, how much money do they actually make from working in these cobalt mines?
The children, even the adults, barely eke out somewhere between 80 cents and maybe $2 a day, depending on the kind of work that they're doing.
When you add to that the context that they're producing this cobalt that's used in the gadgets sold by companies that are worth hundreds of billions of dollars, if not more than a trillion dollars, run by executives or billionaires — that complete degrading and debasing amount of wealth and income that is shared at the bottom of the chain by the top is unconscionable.
It's unacceptable. It's completely indecent. And that's the remedy, above all, that I'm after with my research and this lawsuit in particular — fix the conditions on the ground and pay these people decently.
The hardest thing to do with a kind of suit like this is ... actually prove that the cobalt that is mined by the children that you're talking about is actually ending up in the supply chain of products made by Apple, Microsoft, Dell, Tesla. Is there evidence that that exact cobalt is ending up in their supply chain?
We would not have filed the lawsuit unless we did not have definitive evidence that these children are plaintiffs and thousands of other children and poor people in the Congo were mining and suffering cobalt at mining areas linked directly to the supply chains of the largest tech and automakers in the world.
You see, two-thirds of the global supply of cobalt comes from the Congo. So already, right there, you cannot avoid Congolese cobalt.
People fetch water outside a copper and cobalt mine. (Aaron Ross/Reuters)
But I'm asking you, is it possible that these companies can claim that you can't prove that they're actually linked to the cobalt? 
Certainly the supply chain is opaque. It is complex. But the plaintiffs all were injured and killed at mines owned by companies that have been publicly disclosed as sellers of cobalt to our defendants.
One of those companies is a mining company called Glencore. Glencore has put out a statement to say that it "does not tolerate any form of child, forced, or compulsory labour." What do you say to them?
I say words are all fine and good. But what you say you tolerate and what's actually happening on the ground are two different things.
And I would encourage the people at Glencore to take this seriously, to work constructively on solving this problem. It's been all too easy for these companies to proclaim their zero tolerance policies and then continue business as usual.
There are children, there are peasants, being injured and being killed on sites they own every day. That is a fact. And that is a fact they need to come to terms with and to address in an honest and constructive fashion.
In almost two decades of research into child labour, Kara says the conditions he witnessed at the mines had 'the most heartbreaking, appalling and utterly unimaginable levels of exploitation.' (Junior Kannah/AFP/Getty Images)
How much more would it cost them to actually be paying these labourers the wages, living wages, or putting in safe labour practices for the children and the workers in these mines? 
Perhaps the only tragedy greater than the criminal destruction of the environment and the lives of the people of the Congo by these companies is the fact that it would be a rounding error on their income statements to fix the problem.
It would not take much at all by way of resources or attention to sit down and genuinely and constructively and permanently bring decency, dignity, safety and security to the people and the communities in the Congo where their cobalt is mined.
Written by Katie Geleff and John McGill. Produced by Katie Geleff. Q&A edited for length and clarity.

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'Can't believe it': Sagkeeng First Nation beader's work ends up on Whoopi Goldberg's neck

Star of daytime talk show The View dons handmade Manitoba dancer medallion commemorating MMIWG



Bryce Hoye · CBC News · 

Mish Daniels, a member of Sagkeeng First Nation, nearly lost it when she turned on Monday's episode of The View and noticed Goldberg wearing her handmade jingle dress dancer medallion, similar to the one she is wearing in this photo. (Trevor Brine/CBC)

What started out as a loose pile of beads in Manitoba is generating a discussion on American television about murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls.
Mish Daniels, a member of Sagkeeng First Nation in Manitoba, is elated after seeing her elaborate beadwork around the neck of movie star and host of The View Whoopi Goldberg.
Daniels nearly lost it when she turned on Monday's episode of The View and noticed Goldberg wearing her handmade red jingle dress dancer medallion.


"I lost my voice yesterday morning because I was screaming so much," said Daniels, who was raised in Winnipeg and now lives in Selkirk, Man.
"It's like you're winning the lottery or something, and I just can't believe my little fingers and my work made it to New York City and Whoopi Goldberg and The View."
Goldberg — who starred in movies like Ghost and The Color Purple and has won Academy, Emmy, Tony and Grammy awards for her film, television, stage and comedy work — wore the large medallion on The View again on Tuesday.
The first dancer medallion Daniels made was for and crafted in the image of her niece, a traditional powwow dancer.
Since then Daniels has been selling her work at powwows and elsewhere.
Initially she didn't know whether they'd be popular.


"I never thought in a million years they would get to Whoopi Goldberg."
The necklace ended up in Goldberg's hands in a circuitous way. Daniels sold it to Connie Greyeyes from Fort St. John, B.C., who ordered a red jingle dress medallion to honour missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. 
Greyeyes was also an organizer at a recent conference in Vancouver, where she had a chance encounter with Goldberg.
The conference, part of a project on the impacts of industry on Indigenous women and girls, was at a hotel where Goldberg was attending a different conference. Goldberg was drawn by the smell of smudging, a traditional ceremony that involves burning plants.
Goldberg, who Daniels said is involved in the MMIWG cause in the U.S., spoke with Greyeyes and told her how much she admired the medallion she was wearing.
She talked about wanting to bring awareness to missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in the U.S., and that gave Greyeyes an idea.

Whoopi Goldberg and Connie Greyeyes met recently while attending separate conferences at a hotel in Vancouver. (Submitted by Mish Daniels)
"She said, 'It's not really being talked about, and it needs to be,'" Greyeyes said.
"I wasn't going to wear that medallion that day. It didn't go with what I was wearing, and I looked at her and I just thought, 'I'm meant to give her something for sharing that with me, and for being so gracious.'"
Goldberg accepted the gift, though she was shocked by the kind gesture, said Greyeyes.
Daniels said that kind of gift-giving impulse is what she was taught to listen to growing up.
"I am Ojibway, and in our culture and belief system, when somebody admires something of yours like that, it's protocol to give it away," Daniels said. 
It was Greyeyes who first told her that the medallion had ended up with Goldberg, said Daniels.
"Connie messaged me right away after and said, 'Oh Mish, I need a new good medallion, I gifted my medallion to Whoopi!'"
Mish Daniels's handy work, made in Manitoba in honour of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, has been thrust into the spotlight. Host of The View, Whoopi Goldberg, donned Daniels beaded necklace during back-to-back episodes this week. Video elements courtesy of The View/Twitter. 3:06
The two excitedly wondered over the phone whether Goldberg would wear the piece on The View. 
"I was jumping up and down with my niece and nephew," when she saw it, Daniels said. "I scared the bejesus out of them."
The slate of hosts on the show didn't get a chance to discuss the significance of Goldberg's medallion because they were wrapped up in a heated debate about something else, Daniels said.
"That McCain girl, she's very political. They were too busy arguing about Trump — they didn't even get to it," Daniels said.
Daniels' phone has been ringing off the hook with people placing orders for bead work, she said.
"I need to hire another hand with all the orders I got!"
She sells cars for a living, but her true passion has always been beadwork. 
"I just can't believe it," she said. "And now I am going to be beading until the pigs fly."
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As SC hears Nirbhaya's rape convict's review plea, a look at death penalties in India

As calls for hanging the rapists intensifies on the 7th anniversary of the gruesome Nirbhaya rape-and-murder case, there is a need to have a look at India's record on death penalties to convicts and their execution.


December 17, 2019 06:46 IST


Between 2000 and 2014 trial courts sentenced 1,810 people to death, more than half of which were commuted to life imprisonment. (Graphic: India Today)

As calls for hanging the rapists intensifies on the 7th anniversary of the gruesome Nirbhaya rape-and-murder case, there is a need to have a look at India's record on death penalties to convicts and their execution.

The Supreme court, which had on July 9 last year, dismissed the review pleas filed by three convicts in the case, is scheduled to hear a review of plea of one of the death-row convicts on December 17.

The three convicts who still have the option of filing curative pleas in the top court against their death penalty in the case can then move the President with their mercy pleas.

In case their mercy pleas are dismissed, the authorities can seek death warrants from a local court to execute them. The rejection of mercy pleas can also be challenged in courts by the convicts.

Parliament had last year expanded the scope of the death penalty by introducing it in cases of rape of girls below 12 years under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO).

As per Project 39A report on the death penalty, released by National Law University, Delhi, between 2000 and 2014 trial courts sentenced 1,810 people to death, more than half of which were commuted to life imprisonment and about a quarter of those, 443, were acquitted by the Supreme Court and high courts.

The Supreme Court had upheld the death sentence of 73 of these prisoners, out of which many had already spent a decade on death row.

The apex court last year commuted 11 death sentences to life imprisonment while confirming them in three cases in the review plea hearing of the December 16 Delhi gang-rape case.

READ | Death penalty in India: Did you know shooting by firing squad is an execution method?

Former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi had heard death penalty cases on priority by constituting four benches, each comprising three judges, which sat simultaneously for over 6 weeks to decide cases of capital punishment.

The apex court had confirmed seven death punishments in 2017 whereas in 2016 it had confirmed capital punishment in one case and commuted seven death penalties.

However, the trial courts in India sentenced 162 persons to the gallows in 2018, which was the highest in nearly two decades, since 2000. Out of these, 45 included cases for murder and 58 for murder involving sexual offenses.

The high courts of the country had confirmed 23 death sentences in 2018 whereas they commuted 58 of them and remitted 10 cases. The year saw acquittal in 23 cases in high courts.


READ | Text of Black Warrant that sends death row convicts to gallows

As per its data on the death penalty, as many as 720 prisoners have been executed in India since 1947. Half of these are accounted for by Uttar Pradesh, followed by Haryana, 90 and Madhya Pradesh with 73 executions.

One of the initial executions of independent India was of Nathuram Godse and Narain D Apte, assassins of Mahatma Gandhi; they were hanged to death in Ambala Central Jail in Haryana on November 15, 1949.



The crimes punishable with death term in India fall under the Prevention of Child Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) 2012, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967, Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) 1999, Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) 1985, among others.

In 2018, with 22 cases of capital punishment, over four times more compared to 2017, Madhya Pradesh topped the list of states giving the death penalty.

With 16 convicts being sentenced to capital punishment, Maharashtra was second in the list, closely followed by Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh with 15 cases each of death sentences.


According to Cornell Centre on the Death Penalty Worldwide, the last execution that had taken place in India was on July 30, 2015, of Yakub Memon, a convict in financing the 1993 Mumbai bombings.

Prior to Memon, Muhammad Afzal Guru, who was convicted in the 2001 Parliament attack was sentenced to death by the Supreme Court on December 18, 2002.

He was hanged on February 9, 2013, ten years after his sentencing.

The special court had sentenced Mohammad Ajmal Amir Qasab, the 2008 Mumbai attack gunman, to death on May 6, 2010, and he was executed two years later on November 21, 2012, after the then President Pranab Mukherjee rejected his mercy petition. The top court had confirmed the sentence on August 29, 2012.


Both Qasab and Guru were executed in secrecy without informing their family members or the public of the President's decision. The world got to know only after the hanging had been carried out.

READ | Nathuram Godse was nervous, fearful going to gallows, said judge who heard his appeal

READ | Are Indian lower courts awarding too many death sentences?

READ | Nirbhaya case: Drama in Delhi court as lawyers press for death warrant, delay adjournment

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The religious right is melting down over Chick-fil-A & Hallmark Channel this month


The War on Christmas has been abandoned for the War on Commerce.

By Bil Browning Tuesday, December 17, 2019     



Bryan Fischer is a media figure with the anti-LGBTQ group, 
The American Family Association Photo: YouTube screen grab

It hasn’t been a good month to be an anti-LGBTQ Christian. Conservative evangelicals have been rocked to discover that capitalism is not their friend and money will always outweigh morals.

First, Chick-fil-A, long lauded as a bastion of Christian values and the spot for religious fast food enthusiasts, announced they would stop donating to anti-LGBTQ groups after years of protests and boycott from progressive activists. It didn’t go over well with their longtime vociferous supporters.

Related: Anti-LGBTQ hate group Family Research Council is airing Chick-fil-A’s dirty laundry


Then the Hallmark Channel announced they were open to making holiday movies with queer central characters and ran an ad that showed two lesbian brides kissing. After an astroturf offshoot of an anti-LGBTQ hate group started making noise, the channel yanked the ads only to reverse course and reinstate them within hours.

“The gay gestapo, the bullies of the homosexual movement — and remember, their theme is ‘homosexuality uber alles,’ homosexual trumps everything — so they got a hold of Hallmark, they started getting in, getting after it, getting on Hallmark and they folded in about 48 hours,” according to American Family Association (AFA) radio host Bryan Fischer. Fischer is a former leader of the organization.

“They completely collapsed. They completely reversed. Now they are apologizing all over themselves for supporting normative sexuality. Another victory for the gay gestapo.”

The American Family Association is the parent group of One Million Moms, the front group that doesn’t actually have any members. One woman, Monica Cole, runs “the group” and mostly starts petitions and pens fundraising emails. She also works for AFA.


Cole sent out an email blast shortly after Hallmark changed their mind, citing the Bible verse that commands believers to kill gay people, saying the channel is “forcing tolerance and acceptance of homosexuality – a sinful lifestyle that Scripture clearly deems as wrong.”

“This LGBTQ spirit is the same spirit we read about in the Bible that confronted Lot,” she writes citing Romans 1:18-32. That verse recalls the story of Sodom and Gomorrah and ends by calling for the execution of homosexuals.

After Chick Fil-A promised to no longer donate to anti-LGBTQ groups, enraged conservatives like Mike Huckabee and several right-wing media outlets blasted Chick-fil-A for “surrendering” to the “LGBT bully mob.” Tony Perkins, leader of the anti-LGBTQ Family Research Council, started airing Chick-fil-A’s dirty laundry for allegedly turning its back on ultra-conservative supporters.


With calls for boycotts of companies who do anything perceived as pro-LGBTQ proliferating throughout the religious right, group after group has launched online “petitions” meant to cow companies into submission. The War on Christmas has become a full-on War on Commerce.

In Cole’s last angry missive, she included a link to a new petition.
Hallmark Channel will air commercials featuring same-sex couple after Hallmark CEO steps in
This reversal will be the third decision the TV network will make on the commercials, after #BoycottHallmark started trending over the weekend and GLAAD stepped in.
By Juwan J. Holmes Sunday, December 15, 2019   
Mike Perry, the President and CEO of Hallmark Cards Inc., released a statement late Sunday evening apologizing over the Hallmark Channel’s decision to pull four commercials by wedding website Zola.com from its network. They will change course again, and air the commercials as they initially did before conservative backlash.
“The Crown Media team has been agonizing over this decision as we’ve seen the hurt it has unintentionally caused. Said simply, they believe this was the wrong decision,” Perry wrote in his statement.
Crown Media Family Networks is the Hallmark-owned company managing the Hallmark Channel and other brands, overseen by CEO Bill Abbott who also oversees Hallmark Hall of Fame and Hallmark Publishing.
We reported this weekend that Crown Media caved to the hate group-backed conservative organization One Million Moms and decided to stop airing four of six Zola.com commercials featuring two women in a relationship. One Million Moms blasted them and promised to boycott their network because these commercials “go against Christian and conservative values that are important to your primary audience.”
The commercials were several different versions of multiple scenes where couples at their wedding pondered aloud at how much better their wedding experience would have been if they had used Zola. One of those scenes and at least one of those commercials focused exclusively on a lesbian couple at the altar, where they share a kiss. Although the other scenes focused on straight couples who kissed as well, commercials focused on these couples were allowed to air after the network’s decision.
After Hallmark Channel told Zola.com that they “are not allowed to accept creatives that are deemed controversial,” their representatives made it known they would not advertise with the network any more after this decision. Now, Hallmark will “reaching out to Zola to reestablish our partnership and reinstate the commercials.”
“The Hallmark Channel’s decision to correct its mistake sends an important message to LGBTQ people and represents a major loss for fringe organizations, like One Million Moms, whose sole purpose is to hurt families like mine,” GLAAD CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement. “LGBTQ people are, and will continue to be a part of advertisements and family programming and that will never change.”
Conservatives have been targeting the Hallmark Channel network specifically, even going as far as to offer fake petitions to convince the network not to have LGBTQ+ representation, as CEO Bill Abbott said he was “open” to last month. This came after we published a call to the network, among others, to consider centering LGBTQ stories in one of its Christmas movies.



This image shows a scene from the Zola wedding planning advertisement, which was initially pulled by Hallmark Channel under pressure from a conservative advocacy group. The channel said Sunday it would reinstate the commercial. (Zola via The Associated Press)


The Hallmark Channel will reinstate same-sex marriage commercials that it pulled from the network, according to a company statement sent Sunday.
An ad for wedding planning site Zola featuring two brides kissing at the altar was pulled following a complaint from the conservative group One Million Moms. A Hallmark spokesperson previously told The Associated Press that the network pulled the ad because the controversy was creating a distraction.
"The Crown Media team has been agonizing over this decision as we've seen the hurt it has unintentionally caused. Said simply, they believe this was the wrong decision," Hallmark Cards CEO Mike Perry said in the statement. "We are truly sorry for the hurt and disappointment this has caused."

Hallmark was facing some bitter criticism on social media over its initial decision to pull the ads.
The hashtag #BoycottHallmark was trending at one point on Twitter, and celebrities like Ellen DeGeneres and William Shatner assailed the decision. "Put the commercials back!" Shatner wrote. DeGeneres asked: "Isn't it almost 2020?"
The LGBT advocacy group GLAAD called the initial decision to remove the Zola ads "discriminatory and especially hypocritical coming from a network that claims to present family programming and and also recently stated they are 'open' to LGBTQ holiday movies." The group said it would be asking other Hallmark advertisers where they stand on the issue, and if they will pull their advertising.
Zola said after the commercial was pulled that it wouldn't advertise on the channel. It wasn't clear if the company's decision has changed since Hallmark announced it will reinstate the ads.
The conservative group One Million Moms, part of the American Family Association, had complained about the ads personally to Bill Abbott, CEO of Crown Media Family Networks, Hallmark's parent company.
A post on the group's website said that Abbott "reported the advertisement aired in error." The group also wrote: "The call to our office gave us the opportunity to confirm the Hallmark Channel will continue to be a safe and family-friendly network."
In Canada, the W Network shows Hallmark Channel content after the parent companies of the two channels reached an agreement in October 2018.

'Equal celebrations of love'

Zola had submitted six ads, and four included a lesbian couple. After Hallmark pulled those ads, but not two featuring only opposite-sex couples, Zola pulled its remaining ads, the company said.
"The only difference between the commercials that were flagged and the ones that were approved was that the commercials that did not meet Hallmark's standards included a lesbian couple kissing," said Mike Chi, Zola's chief marketing officer, in a statement sent to the AP. "All kisses, couples and marriages are equal celebrations of love and we will no longer be advertising on Hallmark."
One marketing analyst said the family friendly Hallmark network put itself in the middle of a PR crisis that it should have seen coming.
"They've got trouble on their hands, and they've got to do something fast," said Paul Argenti, a Dartmouth College professor of corporate communication.
Hallmark's statement said the network will be "working with GLAAD to better represent the LGBTQ community" and will be reaching out to Zola to reestablish its partnership and reinstate the commercials.
"Across our brand, we will continue to look for ways to be more inclusive and celebrate our differences," Perry said.
In one of the pulled ads, two brides stand at the altar and wonder aloud whether their wedding would be going more smoothly if they had used a wedding planning site like Zola. The lighthearted ad ends with the just-married couple sharing a quick kiss.
Actress Sandra Bernhard, who played one of the first openly bisexual characters on network TV in Roseanne, also criticized Hallmark's decision.
"All the groovy gay ladies i know won't be watching your Christmas schlock," she wrote on Twitter, addressing Hallmark.
The Hallmark decision was also mocked on Saturday Night Live, and Netflix US tweeted stills from a TV show and movie that it labelled "Titles Featuring Lesbians Joyfully Existing And Also It's Christmas Can We Just Let People Love Who They Love."
The developments came as Hallmark appeared to be considering more same-sex themed content.
Asked about the possibility of holiday movies based on same-sex relationships, Abbott was quoted in The Hollywood Reporter in mid-November as saying on its TV podcast: "We're open to really any type of movie of any type of relationship."
CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIAN FAMILY VALUES (SIC) CAMPAIGN ATTACKS HALLMARK WITH BIGOTED BOYCOTT THREAT OVER (LGBTQ) ROMANCE

“The only difference between the commercials that were flagged and the ones that were approved was that the commercials that did not meet Hallmark’s standards included a lesbian couple kissing.”
NEW YORK (AP) — Under pressure from a conservative advocacy group, The Hallmark Channel has pulled ads for a wedding-planning website that featured two brides kissing at the altar. The...



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