- Candace Cameron Bure said GAF will keep “traditional marriage at the core,” excluding queer stories.
- Celebrities like Hilarie Burton Morgan and JoJo Siwa criticized her remarks.
- Representatives for Bure haven’t immediately responded to Insider’s request for comment.
The self-proclaimed queen of Christmas Candace Cameron Bure has a very specific vision for the holiday films featured on her new network Great American Family (GAF).
When asked by The Wall Street Journal whether she plans to include same-sex couples as leads, Bure reportedly said no. “I think that Great American Family will keep traditional marriage at the core,” she said.
“My heart wants to tell stories that have more meaning and purpose and depth behind them.”
After having filmed 30 movies for Hallmark media over 13 years, Bure announced in April 2022 that she was leaving the company to follow Bill Abbott, the former CEO of Hallmark’s parent company, Crown Media, to his new company. She received a leadership role at GAF and also executive produces content for the network.
Abbott left Crown Media and Hallmark in 2020 after controversy erupted over Hallmark’s censoring a Zola commercial featuring two brides kissing each other. The company eventually reinstated the commercial, Deadline reported.
Paul Archuleta/Getty Images
When asked by WSJ if he thinks GAF will tell queer stories, Abbott said, “It’s certainly the year 2022, so we’re aware of the trends.”
“There’s no whiteboard that says, ‘Yes, this’ or ‘No, we’ll never go here,’” he added.
“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 of her move to GAF from Hallmark.
She said she wanted to tell a story of faith in her first GAF Christmas movie, “A Christmas…Present.” But she also didn’t want the movie to be “off-putting to the unbeliever or someone who shares a different faith,” she said.
Morgan Lieberman/Getty Images
“A Christmas…Present” centers on a woman who is struggling in her marriage and goes to visit her widower brother who reintroduces her to Christianity and the church.
She told WSJ that while she likes to tell sweet Christmas love stories, she wanted something with a deeper message this time because even her kids were starting to make fun of her films.
“My own kids have said, ‘Mom, are you leaving the big city and going to the farm, meeting the love of your life?’” she said.
‘One Tree Hill’ star Hilarie Burton Morgan called Bure a ‘bigot’ in response to the WSJ article
Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic
Celebrities are already responding to Bure and Abbott’s comments regarding the future of queer stories on GAF.
On Tuesday, “One Tree Hill” star Hilarie Burton Morgan shared a tweet featuring the article and wrote, “Now they’re just openly admitting their bigotry.”
Morgan, who has been open in the past about why she stopped working with Hallmark, continued, “I called this shit out years ago when Abbott was at Hallmark. Glad they dumped him.”
She said that “being LGBTQ isn’t a ‘trend,’” and called Abbott “disgusting.”
“You too Candy. There is nothing untraditional about same-sex couples,” she concluded, presumably referring to Bure as “Candy,” short for Candace.
—Hilarie Burton Morgan (@HilarieBurton) November 14, 2022
In another tweet, she shared a TV Line article featuring Bure’s quotes from WSJ and wrote, “Bigot. I don’t remember Jesus liking hypocrites like Candy. But sure. Make your money, honey. You ride that prejudice wave all the way to the bank.”
—Hilarie Burton Morgan (@HilarieBurton) November 15, 2022
JoJo Siwa, who recently had a public dispute with Bure and considers her the “rudest” celebrity she’d ever met, also had thoughts on the “Full House” alum’s comments.
“Honestly, I can’t believe after everything that went down just a few months ago, that she would not only create a movie with intention of excluding LGBTQIA+, but then also talk about it in the press,” Siwa wrote in an Instagram post featuring a screenshot about Bure’s comments.
Getty Images
Siwa added that Bure was being “rude and hurtful to a whole community of people.”
Bure’s representatives haven’t immediately responded to Insider’s request for comment.