Good news, everyone! The year after she left the Hallmark Channel for Great American Family in part because the latter would “keep traditional marriage at the core,” Candace Cameron Bure is starring in a new Great American Family Christmas movie, “My Christmas Hero.” And if there’s one thing we have been promised will not be in that movie, it’s LGBTQ+ characters.
By contrast, Hallmark continues to come out with new holiday movies with LGBTQ+ main characters: two this season. “Christmas on Cherry Lane” (preview at the top of this post) will premiere on Dec. 9, and “Friends & Family Christmas” will premiere on Dec. 17. Expect an undiluted Hallmark holiday movie experience. On Thanksgiving night, Hallmark will also be premiering “Catch Me If You Claus,” a straight romance featuring gay actor Luke Macfarlane. Macfarlane’s continuing casting in straight romantic lead roles since he started also playing prominent LGBTQ+ roles is another solid move from Hallmark.
As “My Christmas Hero” neared release, Bure told The Messenger regarding her work with Great American Family, “I think we want to create an oasis in a cultural desert.” While her overt bigotry in last year’s announcement that she was leaving Hallmark got enough of a backlash that Bure tried to walk back her comments, the intent remains clear: “an oasis in a cultural desert” means a safe space for bigots.
Hallmark’s decision to continue including LGBTQ+-themed holiday movies in its by-now iconic annual roster is significant. Hallmark is making a business decision, and the company has decided that diversity is good business. The bigots are losing the culture wars, and they know it. That’s why they’re fighting so fiercely to keep from losing more ground, to make the process painful for groups of people they don’t like while they still have the power to do so, to reframe their retreat to places like Great American Family as a win.
Meanwhile, Hallmark isn’t the only TV channel or streamer with LGBTQ+-themed holiday movies. Have fun out there in the cultural desert this season, and be sure to avoid that one oasis.
Republished with permission from Daily Kos.
