Candace Cameron Bure says her new network won’t feature LGBTQ couples in its made-for-TV Christmas movies.
In a new Wall Street Journal profile, the former Full House star and conservative Christian discussed her new role as chief creative officer at the Great American Family Channel, which launched late last year.
“I knew that the people behind Great American Family were Christians that love the Lord and wanted to promote faith programming and good family entertainment,” Bure said.
Asked whether the network would feature movies that include same-sex couples, Bure answered with a definitive no. “I think that Great American Family will keep traditional marriage at the core,” she explained.
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The actor previously made her views on “traditional marriage” known during her brief stint as a host on The View. On a July 2015 episode of the chat show, she defended an Oregon baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple.
“I don’t think this is discrimination at all,” she said at the time. “This is about freedom of association, it’s about constitutional rights, it’s about First Amendment rights. We do have the right to still choose who we associate with.”
Bure, who has become a fixture of The Hallmark Channel’s annual Christmas movies, left the network earlier this year.
“It basically is a completely different network than when I started because of the change of leadership,” she told WSJ.
Bure didn’t elaborate, but part of that difference may be the network’s gradual embrace of diversity in its programming after years of criticism. In 2019, during his tenure as chief executive of Hallmark Channel’s parent company Crown Media Family Networks, Bill Abbott came under fire for refusing to air commercials featuring same-sex couples. Abbott left the company shortly after the controversy and is now the chief executive of Great American Family owner Great American Media.
The following summer, Crown Media Family Networks announced that it would air movies featuring LGBTQ characters in its 2020 holiday lineup. In September, Hallmark announced the December 11 premiere of The Holiday Sitter, its first holiday movie centered on a gay couple.
