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:

• JONATHAN BENT WANTED TO CREATE A GAY UNCLE BUCK FOR THE HOLIDAY STER
• MAKE THE YULETI GAY WH THE NEW LGBTQ CHRISTMAS MOVI
• 10 QUEER CHRISTMAS MOVI TO MAKE THE YULETI GAY
• HALLMARK'S FIRST GAY CHRISTMAS MOVIE IS HERE — AND GEE KRISSA IS OVERJOYED TO BE A PART OF
• THE HALLMARK CHANNEL'S FIRST GAY CHRISTMAS MOVIE STARS 'MEAN GIRLS' JONATHAN BENT
• TV’S GAY CHRISTMAS MOVI ARE AS BENIGN, CHARMG AND CLICHE AS WE ALWAYS HOPED THEY’D BE

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

And while a straight uple might be the protagonists the movie, ’s fely more queer than meets the one, the movie’s planng started at Los Angel’s famo gay bar the Abbey. It was there that An Unexpected Christmas’s gay executive producer, Matthew Brady, met out wrer Greg McGoon, who me up wh the story.

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.

MAKE THE YULETI GAY WH THE NEW LGBTQ CHRISTMAS MOVI

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

10 QUEER CHRISTMAS MOVI TO MAKE THE YULETI 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.

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.

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

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.

In the movie, which buts Sunday, Bent plays Sam, a gay guy whose personal life suffers at the st of his profsnal life — work over marriage. '" Add to the formula the actor's love of the '80s classic Uncle Buck starrg John Candy, pl his sire to see a movie that was "really thentic to what 's like beg a gay man 2022.

THE HALLMARK CHANNEL'S FIRST GAY CHRISTMAS MOVIE STARS 'MEAN GIRLS' JONATHAN BENT

" And that turned to me and my love for Uncle Buck, the movie wh John Candy that I grew up on, and I kd of put those ias together and I said, "What if Uncle Buck was gay? Sam is beg really thentic to what 's like beg a gay man 2022 and what that experience is. As gay men, we're navigatg what our liv look like wh kids, or gettg married, or whout kids, and 's not black or whe — there's so many different avenu to startg a fay and havg a chosen fay.

Somethg I found so funny is how Sam realiz that Jason is gay — when Jason ments on Sam's sho.

Like, "Oh wow, he is gay. 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.

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

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. The tradn ntu 2021, wh films starrg RuPl, Michael Urie, Jonathan Ben and more — pl appearanc by gay favor like Jennifer your holiday season bge-watchg ssns acrdgly wh the upg movi and specials. 2, NetflixTony-wng director Michael Mayer (“Sprg Awakeng”) helms Netflix’s first gay holiday film, which se perpetually sgle Peter (Michael Urie) beggg his bt iend, Nick (Philemon Chambers), to e home wh him and pretend to be his boyiend to put an end to his fay’s nstant meddlg.