Hallmark Is Releasing A Christmas Movie All About A Gay Couple And My Ally Heart Can't Wait
They are finally diversifying our favorite time of the year.
We all love a good ol' sappy Christmas movie and this year, the Hallmark Channel is finally giving us what we want: diversity.
The heart of tv is making my heart skip a beat with the debut of a new LGBTQ storyline about a gay couple, played by Jonathan Bennet and Brad Harder, looking to adopt their first child.
Now, I could argue that this is still a very "straight-washed" version of gay life, but all Hallmark Christmas movies are cliche and not necessarily the most realistic, but that's what we love about them, so I'll take it. And, I guess society isn't ready to watch gay people fall in love – this will be our next campaign.
Although I am a straight ally, my brother is gay and I'm sure he would have loved seeing a bunch of gay dudes doing our yearly holiday movie marathon nights. Representation, whether that be gender, sexuality, race, culture, ethnicity, religionetc., is so important when it comes to mass media. When we see ourselves in others, we feel like we belong, and everyone deserves to belong to society.
The Hallmark Channel is known for its positive Christmas-themed romance movies that only feature cis-couples as the lead. There have been buckets of criticism that streamed in when Hallmark pulled their same-sex marriage ads. Thankfully, the channel decided to reverse that decision, but what was done, was done.
That was a huge mistake and the internet began to urge the channel to feature an LGBTQ lead and back in July a spokesperson of the company said that they are "committed to creating a Hallmark experience where everyone feels welcome."
They are finally meeting that promise with "The Christmas House," which premiers Sunday, November 22. I'm already preparing my popcorn, hot chocolate, and flamingo slippers. This is it guys, we are one step closer to getting that Hallmark Gay channel.
