TV's gay Christmas movi on Lifetime and Hallmark are as benign, charmg and cliche as we always hoped they?d be - The Washgton Post

Contents:

• HALLMARK PREMIER S FIRST LGBTQ HOLIDAY MOVIE WH A GAY LEAD UPLE
• MAKE THE YULETI GAY WH THE NEW LGBTQ CHRISTMAS MOVI
• GAY THEMED HALLMARK MOVI
• JONATHAN BENT WANTED TO CREATE A GAY UNCLE BUCK FOR THE HOLIDAY STER
• HALLMARK RELEAS ITS FIRST GAY CHRISTMAS MOVIE WH TWO LEADG MEN
• TV’S GAY CHRISTMAS MOVI ARE AS BENIGN, CHARMG AND CLICHE AS WE ALWAYS HOPED THEY’D BE
• HALLMARK'S FIRST GAY CHRISTMAS MOVIE IS HERE — AND GEE KRISSA IS OVERJOYED TO BE A PART OF

HALLMARK PREMIER S FIRST LGBTQ HOLIDAY MOVIE WH A GAY LEAD UPLE

Canadian actor Jake Foy is makg wav for playg the openly gay wboy Tuff McMurray on Hallmark's newt wtern seri, Ri. Dubbed by The Advote's sister publitn Out as the "gay kg of Christmas," Jonathan Bent has starred some of the Hallmark Channel's most beloved holiday films.

MAKE THE YULETI GAY WH THE NEW LGBTQ CHRISTMAS MOVI

Alberta native Brad Harr is an out actor known pecially for The Christmas Hoe seri, which he and Jonathan Bent played the first married gay uple Hallmark history. The multalented (and proudly out) Ali Liebert has both acted and directed projects for Hallmark, and she helmed the groundbreakg gay Christmas movie The Holiday Ster.

However, ’s a good first step that there are even enough movi for me to create this list of Hallmark movi wh gay characters. Most gay characters and upl the movi are whe and male. Let’s be clear, as of the start of 2021, no Hallmark movie has featured gay characters as leads.

No matter what official Hallmark reps say, The Christmas Hoe and Mix Up the Mederranean do not feature gay leads.

GAY THEMED HALLMARK MOVI

While I tly enjoyed The Christmas Hoe and loved seeg the happily married gay uple, they played send-fiddle to the ma straight uple’s romantic storyle. It jt so happens that Jeremy Jordan, who is playg that straight man is also playg his gay tw. This do not qualify as a gay lead character, and dog the bare mimum isn’t enarg Hallmark to anyone.

The only memorable thg about this movie was one of the only tim a Hallmark character has said “I am gay. Y, back 2012, Hallmark premiered a Christmas movie which the sister proclaimed she was gay. At first, I thought was jt a way to keep a man om htg on her, but an earlier scene shows that she actually is gay.

It also had the most subtle ht of a gay uple I have ever seen on TV. This movie also marks the first time a gay uple has shared an on-screen kiss on any Hallmark work.

JONATHAN BENT WANTED TO CREATE A GAY UNCLE BUCK FOR THE HOLIDAY STER

Though there is no POC love tert as of yet, Dani McKellar’s Kayleigh was given a gay bt iend, which for Hallmark is a gigantic step forward. My only knock on the movie is how Hallmark attempted to market as the work’s first movie wh gay leads. This is the send Kimberly Stad/Pl Campbell llaboratn that has clud a gay uple.

I love how they’re slowg chippg away at archaic notns of love one edy and one gay character at a time. For Lifetime, which last year had “The Christmas Setup, ” the channel’s first-ever movie starrg gay leads, the move was a big one: the premiere of “Unr the Christmas Tree, ” s first movie featurg lbians as the uple at the center of a holiday romance. Meanwhile, Hallmark ma a smaller step by settg “The Christmas Hoe 2: Deck Those Halls, ” a sequel to 2020’s “The Christmas Hoe, ” which featured Jonathan Bent and Brad Harr as a gay uple lookg to adopt.

HALLMARK RELEAS ITS FIRST GAY CHRISTMAS MOVIE WH TWO LEADG MEN

The dispary between the extents to which the Christmas-obssed ble channels are focg on LGBTQ holiday ntent 2021 is nsistent wh their rpective cisns ma on the matter last year, when Lifetime st a gay uple as leads “The Christmas Setup” and Hallmark featured s first homosexual uple as part of an ensemble “The Christmas Hoe.

“Even though we’ve got ‘Unr the Christmas Tree, ’ which is a real highlight, we’ve got several others the mix that are clive, whether they’re gay upl or jt characters, we’ve been tryg to make sure that people are reprented across the board, ” Lifetime head of programmg Amy Wter told TheWrap durg an Oct.

When “The Christmas Setup, ” Lifetime’s first-ever movie starrg gay leads, played by married--real-life uple Ben Lewis and Blake Lee, buted last year, Wter told TheWrap she had been lookg for a project starrg LGBTQ leads for some time, but was very agast somethg “really sacchare. “The fact that big Hallmark — the greetg-rd divisn — overturned Bill Abbott’s cisn on the Zola ad shows that the pany is ser about diversy their mographics, and we’re seeg lots of baby steps the 2020 and 2021 movi wh gay and lbian B-stori. (Durg the Abbott era, spottg a queer uple was like tryg to fd a gay character a 1940s movie that somehow slipped past the Productn Co.

TV’S GAY CHRISTMAS MOVI ARE AS BENIGN, CHARMG AND CLICHE AS WE ALWAYS HOPED THEY’D BE

This year, the channel cid to diversify s sts by featurg s first openly gay lead uple. We recently saw one movie wh a gay lead character.

HALLMARK'S FIRST GAY CHRISTMAS MOVIE IS HERE — AND GEE KRISSA IS OVERJOYED TO BE A PART OF

”Hallmark Channel News – First Hallmark Movie Wh Gay LeadThis month, “Mix Up the Mederranean” will be Hallmark’s first movie wh a gay lead. Related: Bt Gay Movi Streamg on NetflixTo make sure the movi liver all the passn, fatuatn, urtship and flirtatn you may be cravg, our remendatns only clu movi where romantic relatnships are ont-and-center—which means such LGBTQ+ gems as, say, Can You Ever Five Me?