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Make America straight again — at least in Hallmark Channel movies.
That’s the message two notable family groups are peddling with petitions after a Hallmark Channel bigwig recently expressed his acceptance to including LGBT characters in the network’s Christmas movies.
When asked about the lack of character diversity in its famous “Countdown to Christmas” annual holiday offerings, Bill Abbott, CEO of Crown Media Family Networks — the parent company to Hallmark — said he was open to expanding the network’s audience.
“In terms of broadening out the demographic, it’s something we’re always thinking about,” Abbott told The Hollywood Reporter. “Always considering and we’ll continue to make the movies where the best scripts are delivered to us and what we think have the most potential.”
On tap this holiday season from the network are two dozen original features, including “A Christmas Love Story,” “A Christmas Detour” and “Jingle Around the Clock.”
“Please sign our petition asking Hallmark to do what is right and reject airing movies and commercials with LGBT content!” read the posting on the One Million Moms website.
The website cited a Zola.com ad in which two lesbians kiss at their wedding ceremony as one instance in which the network, which produces dozens of family-friendly films each year, was showing signs of LGBT inclusiveness.
The second group, LifeSite, a hardcore Catholic website, posted a link forwarding would-be petitioners to “tell Hallmark No LGBT Christmas movies!”
In an opinion piece posted Dec. 6, LifeSite listed four reasons to keep the “promotion of homosexuality and transgenderism” out of Hallmark movies, which included allowing parents to be primary educators involving sexual morals.
Some of the headlines on its home page Tuesday were “Catholic school board stocks pro-LGBT book glamorizing kids performing ‘oral sex'” and “With leftist donations, Chick-fil-A betrayed those who want to live their faith at work.”
As of Tuesday, the LifeSite petition had drawn almost 40,000 signatures, while One Million Moms had collected more than 16,000 names, according to NBC News.