Thousands of people in multiple petitions are calling on the Hallmark Channel to “reject” LGBTQ content.
One Million Moms, a branch of the American Family Association, has posted a petition of complaint after Hallmark aired a Zola commercial that featured a lesbian couple getting married and sharing a kiss. Its petition has almost 22,000 signatures as of Thursday afternoon.
The petition requests that the channel “stay true to its family friendly roots” and avoid sexual content, “including the promotion of homosexuality,” in both its movies and commercials.
“Until recently, Hallmark had a good record for keeping their movies and commercials family friendly,” the petition says. “Now, parents can no longer trust Hallmark because Hallmark is no longer allowing parents to be the primary educators when it comes to sex and sexual morality.”
One viewer quoted by One Million Moms commented that they are “fed up with having the gay agenda crammed down our throats!”
“We love you but won’t keep watching with this type of ads,” the viewer said.
The petitions come after Michelle Vicary, vice president of programming at the channel, said in an interview with The Wrap that the channel is also exploring developing LGBTQ movies.
Conservative website LifeSite published a separate petition that it says has more than 25,000 signatures demanding the channel avoid this content in their Christmas movies to “protect children’s innocence this Christmas.”
Zola’s chief marketing officer Mike Chi told Yahoo Lifestyle that the released ad is meant to represent the company’s diverse customers.
“We’ve always represented a diverse set of couples in all of our marketing messages because that’s representative of the couples who are getting married today and the couples who use Zola,” Chi said. “They come from all types of backgrounds, and the goal of this campaign was to show Zola’s here to help any couple who is choosing to celebrate their love.”
The Hill has reached out to Hallmark for comment.