Hallmark premier s first LGBTQ holiday movie wh a gay lead uple

Contents:

• HALLMARK PREMIER S FIRST LGBTQ HOLIDAY MOVIE WH A GAY LEAD UPLE
• HALLMARK'S JONATHAN BENT TALKS INCLIVY AMIDST FIRST GAY-LED ROMANCE AND RIVAL NETWORK GAF’S ‘TRADNAL MARRIAGE’ DRAMA
• FALLY, HALLMARK’S HOLIDAY FARE MAK A GAY UPLE ‘PART OF THE FAY’
• FALLY, HALLMARK'S HOLIDAY FARE MAK A GAY UPLE 'PART OF THE FAY'
• HALLMARK CHANNEL ANNOUNC CHRISTMAS MOVIE FEATURG GAY UPLE LOOKG TO ADOPT

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

This year, the channel cid to diversify s sts by featurg s first openly gay lead uple.

This third movie followg Romance the Air and Love on Harbor Island has the distctn of also beg the first big movie on the channel to openly show a gay weddg onscreen. The film foc on a gay uple lookg to adopt their first child and airs on Sunday, Nov. This year, the works troduce their most diverse lp ever, featurg their first film wh a story le about a gay uple, starrg Hallmark staple, Jonathan Bent.

This year’s movi reflect our most diverse reprentatn of talent, narrativ, and fai, cludg The Christmas Hoe, featurg a storyle about a gay uple lookg to adopt their first child, ” EVP of Programmg Michelle Viry said a statement on Wednday. Now, Hallmark star Jonathan Bent has talked about the channel’s creased ph for clivy amid all of the Did Jonathan Bent Say About Hallmark’s Inclivy And Its First Gay-Led Romance?

HALLMARK'S JONATHAN BENT TALKS INCLIVY AMIDST FIRST GAY-LED ROMANCE AND RIVAL NETWORK GAF’S ‘TRADNAL MARRIAGE’ DRAMA

However, until the 2022 Christmas movie schle entry, The Holiday Ster (which was one of the upg Hallmark movi until this past weekend), viewers hadn’t seen one of the films foc on a gay Girls star Bent, who’s one of the leads of the new movie and also executive produced , spoke to USA Today about the importance of the film’s clivy, and said:What's so special about The Holiday Ster is that 's the first time we'll see two men meet-cute and fall love at Christmas. apologized for removg a Zola mercial that featured a gay uple amid plats om One Milln Moms, a nservative group that is a part of the Amerin Fay Associatn.

The Hallmark Channel is ntug s efforts to tell diversified storyl as part of s popular "Countdown to Christmas" this of the work's holiday films featur a gay uple. 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. 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.

FALLY, HALLMARK’S HOLIDAY FARE MAK A GAY UPLE ‘PART OF THE FAY’

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.

FALLY, HALLMARK'S HOLIDAY FARE MAK A GAY UPLE 'PART OF THE FAY'

(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. After all, the project hails om Hallmark Channel, whose annual “Countdown to Christmas” lp of origal movi — a seasonal mastay both lucrative and beloved — clud 23 tl 2019, none featurg a gay uple. )As turned out, Bent‘s love tert wasn’t a woman at all: Instead, he’ll play half of the first gay uple highlighted the work’s heavily watched holiday programmg.

”Grossman — who is gay, as are Bent and Harr — unrstands where they’re g om and hop to meet some of the Hallmark fans halfway. After all, the project hails om Hallmark Channel, whose annual "Countdown to Christmas" lp of origal movi — a seasonal mastay both lucrative and beloved — clud 23 tl 2019, none featurg a gay uple. )As turned out, Bent's love tert wasn't a woman at all: Instead, he'll play half of the first gay uple highlighted the work's heavily watched holiday programmg.

"Grossman — who is gay, as are Bent and Harr — unrstands where they're g om and hop to meet some of the Hallmark fans halfway. Brad Harr and Jonathan Bent played Hallmark Channel's first gay married uple the 2020 holiday movie The Christmas Hoe. "It's so tertg: I went om hidg who I was to the world and kissg Ldsay Lohan Mean Girls to starrg as part of the first gay uple a Christmas movie for the biggt Christmas work the world, " says the actor, who me out publicly 2017.

HALLMARK CHANNEL ANNOUNC CHRISTMAS MOVIE FEATURG GAY UPLE LOOKG TO ADOPT

The actor has sce e out as gay, and marvels at how tim have changed. 2, Netflix dropped Sgle All the Way, starrg Michael Urie and Philemon Chambers — the first out gay Black actor to headle a holiday movie — as Los Angel-based bt iends who disver that they may be somethg more durg a Christmas vis to Urie's small-town home. "And I thk what’s so great about this year is that the aren't stori about beg gay — they are stori about love, and that's somethg we n all intify wh.

The fact that they’re gay isn’t the foc of the entire storyle. "I'm extremely proud that the problems the characters have [are] the same problems that a straight person might have, " Urie, who sred his breakthrough screen role as Vansa Williams's out gay assistant on Ugly Betty, tells Yahoo Entertament.

"They are not alg wh g out wo; they are not alg wh feelgs of shame; and they are not alg wh homophobic fai. "Philemon Chambers and Michael Urie star Netflix's first gay-themed holiday movie Sgle All the Way. (Photo: Philippe Bosse/Netflix)Chambers agre that ntemporary LGBTQ stori — holiday-related or otherwise — have evolved beyond the kds of g-out stori that played outsized rol movi like The Birdge and even Happit Season, where gay upl feel pelled to hi their inti om their loved on.