Brian Brown and Bryan Fisher are the
latest Christian conservatives to criticize the Hallmark Channel's
decision to reverse course on a lesbian ad.
On Sunday, Hallmark backtracked on
pulling an ad from online wedding registry Zola.com that showed a
lesbian couple getting married and later kissing after exchanging
vows.
Hallmark announced that it would pull
the ad after the Christian conservative group One Million Moms
criticized the network for running the ad and for saying that it was
“open” to producing movies with same-sex couples.
According to the Human Rights Campaign
(HRC), the nation's largest LGBT rights advocate, more than 70,000
people signed its petition calling on Hallmark to reinstate the ad.
In an email to supporters, Brown, the
president of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), linked the
controversy to the Equality Act, a bill that would extend LGBT
protections nationwide.
“There are precious few
family-friendly entertainment options today, so it’s a shame that
parents who wish to shield their children from controversial,
anti-biblical, presentations until parents themselves decide to raise
these subjects with their kids can no longer trust the Hallmark
Channel to respect their values,” Brown wrote.
“Still, the Hallmark Channel is a
private company and they can choose to alienate a large portion of
their viewership by kowtowing to the political demands of the left if
they wish – and risk the resulting ratings decline that is sure to
come.”
“But if pending federal legislation
were to pass, this type of thing will not only become more frequent,
it may even be considered 'discriminatory' not to advance the LGBT
agenda,” he added.
(Related: Franklin
Graham calls on followers to “change the channel” on Hallmark
over lesbian ad.)
On his Focal Point radio
program, Fisher said that Hallmark had caved to “the gay gestapo.”
“And then 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. They
completely collapsed,” Fischer complained. “They completely
reversed. Now they are apologizing all over themselves for supporting
normative sexuality.”
“Another victory for the gay
gestapo,” Fischer
added.