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.
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.”
Hallmark will be working with GLAAD to better represent the LGBTQ community across our portfolio of brands. The Hallmark Channel will be reaching out to Zola to reestablish our partnership and reinstate the commercials. pic.twitter.com/p17nJpnjEB— Hallmark (@Hallmark) December 16, 2019
“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.
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.
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.
“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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