Support for a petition calling on TLC
to cancel 19 Kids and Counting over its stars' opposition to
gay rights has skyrocketed in the past two days.
Nearly 141,000 people as of Friday
night had signed Jim Wissick's change.org
petition, 134,000 in the last two days alone after E!
Online highlighted the effort.
The reality show focuses on Christians
Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, who have 19 children, all of whose names
begin with the letter “J.” The Duggars live in Tontitown,
Arkansas.
Over the summer, Michelle Duggar
unsuccessfully lobbied against passage of an LGBT-inclusive
anti-discrimination ordinance in Fayetteville, Arkansas. She warned
in a robocall that the ordinance would allow men to enter public
restrooms and sexually assault women and children.
“I don’t believe the citizens of
Fayetteville would want males with past child predator convictions
that claim they are female to have a legal right to enter private
areas that are reserved for women and girls,” Michelle Duggar said.
“The Duggars have been using their
fame to promote discrimination, hate and fear-mongering against gays
and transgender people,” Wissick's petition reads. “You need to
take a stand on the side of justice and cancel their show.”
According to Wissick, the Duggars are
behind an effort to repeal the ordinance.
“The Duggars have thrown massive
amounts of money to repeal this law so business owners and landlords
can evict and fire people solely over gender identity and sexual
orientation. They need to be taken off the air!”
More recently, Jim Bob and Michelle
asked “all married couples” on Facebook to share photos of
themselves kissing. When same-sex couples responded, most of their
images were deleted.
John Becker, editor in chief of The
Bilerico Project, said that his entry was deleted and he was
banned from the Duggar family page.
“[T]he whole episode says something
about them and their gay panic-saturated worldview,” Becker told
The
Advocate.