Who knew Hallmark Christmas movies are part of a culture war?

The beloved family-oriented network of holiday movies and year-round rom-coms is now under siege from both conservatives and liberals over its content, its actors and its message. And it all started with a commercial advertising a wedding registry.

It should be noted viewers already for years were urging Hallmark Channel to feature more people of color and more non-traditional families. But it was a same-sex couple that finally brought the demand for representation into the open.

Back about January 2020, the Hallmark Channel ran a commercial for the Zola.com wedding registry featuring a lesbian couple exchanging vows and kissing on their wedding day. Conservative groups such as One Million Moms insisted the ad was not family friendly and Hallmark pulled the ad.

Right after that, the non-conservative viewers insisted this was discrimination against gay people and same-sex couples and insisted the ad be reinstated. Eventually Hallmark Channel president put the ad back on.

Not too long after that, Abbott left Hallmark Channel and in June 2021, he and others in a new ownership group bought a network thn known as Great American Country. It had been launched in 1995 as a country music channel but later included lifestyle programming.

This new ownership group relaunched the network as Great American Family. Abbott and his crew recruited several actors from his old network and positioned Great American Family as a family-oriented channel with original series and movies emphasizing "relationships and the emotional connections related to holidays, seasons and occasions" which reflected "American culture, lifestyle and heritage," according to Wikipedia.

The bright shining star among the firmament of actors recruited is Candace Cameron Bure, who spent 14 years at Hallmark and starred in 30of its productions to be considered one of the queens of the genre. Bure signed a contract with Great American Family in April 2022 as chief content officer. In that role, she will develop, produce and star in original content for the network.

Bure insists her contract with Hallmark was about to expire this this was an opportunity for more creative control. But several interviews she's given since then revel the move was more about leaving a network no longer reflecting her conservative white Christian views.

Early on Bure announced the new network was "going to focus on traditional families with a mom and dad," according to "What Is Great American Family and Which Hallmark Stars Are Making the Move?" by Emily Longretha in the Aug. 8, 2022, U.S. Weekly News.

And in a controversial interview with The Wall Street Journal published Nov. 14, 2022, she doubled down on her position that GAF will keep traditional marriage at the core."

Fellow Hallmark actress Hillarie Burton called on Bure on her statement, insisting "There is nothing untraditional about same-sex couples."

Another Hallmark actress, Holly Robinson Peete, who is Black, cihided Bure for using words such as "traditional" in relation to marriage, saying it was the same way white racists have used such word to hide and justify racist behavior.

Quoting from a recent social media post sent to her Nov. 19, she said, "It wasn't traditional for us (Blacks) to drink out of water fountains that white people drink from, or go to school with them. It wasn't considered traditional for my parents and grandparents to vote..."

Another comment to this effect was made by Lorraine Ali in the Dec. 7, 2021, Los Angeles Times in her column "A new TV network wants to make Christmas great again: why this message is a harmful one."

Citing that Great American Family was launched as a wholesome, family-friendly alternative to the Hallmark Channel which some no longer is that kind of channel, Ali says Hallmark was trying to diversify its content, as many in the industry are doing for greater inclusion.

"It's coded language," she says of words such as "American values" or "traditional families." "Its underlying message is one echoed across conservative media and politics: the "real" America is suburban or rural, predominately white, heterosexual and Christian...Especially when tied up with a holiday bow, it's a message far more dangerous and demonstrably false than any Christmas movie (or wedding planner ad) with a gay couple at its center."

This is the opinion of Times Writers Group member Lois Thielen, a dairy farmer who lives near Grey Eagle. Her column is typically published the first Sunday of the month.

This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: Who knew Hallmark Christmas movies are part of a culture war?