The Hallmark Channel reversed and apologized for its decision to pull a commercial that featured a same-sex wedding in response to the American Family Association (AFA), an extreme anti-LGBTQ group that has equated gay sex to “domestic terrorism” and endorsed Russia’s “gay propaganda” law. 

One Million Moms, a division of AFA, launched the petition asking the network “to keep sex and sexual content – including the promotion of homosexuality – out of its programming.” The group’s petitions have historically used dubious methods to collect signatures, meaning that the purported 30,000 signatures were likely much lower in reality.

After Hallmark pulled the ads on December 12, leading LGBTQ advocacy organizations Human Rights Campaign and GLAAD, along with many celebrities, called on the network to reverse its decision. 

On December 14, Hallmark’s President and CEO Mike Perry announced that the network reversed its decision and would work to reair the ads, stating that the network believed “this was the wrong decision.” Perry also noted that “Hallmark will be working with GLAAD to better represent the LGBTQ community across our portfolio of brands.” One Million Moms launched a boycott in response.

One Million Moms is part of AFA’s extreme anti-LGBTQ media apparatus 

In reporting the story, several media outlets failed to categorize One Million Moms as part of an extreme anti-LGBTQ group, instead only noting that AFA is “conservative” or that it launches other petitions. Outlets such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, CBS News, and ABC News failed to contextualize AFA’s anti-LGBTQ extremism and rhetoric.

AFA has led a decades-long political crusade against LGBTQ folks. As part of that, it runs a substantial right-wing media apparatus that pushes dangerous anti-LGBTQ narratives and misinformation, featuring extremists such as Bryan Fischer and E.W. Jackson. AFA’s media properties include American Family Radio (AFR) and news website OneNewsNow, and its president, Tim Wildmon, was recently named to President Donald Trump’s faith advisory council.

Here are just a sampling of extreme anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and actions AFA and its media outlets have engaged in:

• AFA President Tim Wildmon has repeatedly called LGBTQ people “immoral” and “unnatural.”

• Wildmon suggested that President Barack Obama should “advocate behavior change” among LGBTQ people by telling them to “stop doing what you're doing and you won't get AIDS.”

• In 2013, AFA endorsed Russia’s anti-LGBTQ “gay propaganda” law, which “effectively legalizes discrimination based on sexual orientation” and led to an increase in homophobic rhetoric and violence in the country. 

• On AFR’s Focal Point, host and former AFA spokesperson Bryan Fischer has condemned gay men to hell.

• Fischer falsely claimed that gays were responsible for the Nazi Party. 

• Fischer said, “Gay sex is a form of domestic terrorism.

• Fischer has said that Muslims, women, and LGBTQ people should not hold political office.

• An article on AFA’s OneNewsNow news website lied that proposed LGBTQ-inclusive Texas legislation would “ban Christianity” 

• OneNewsNow has pushed the debunked “bathroom predator” myth. 

• On AFR’s now-canceled show Janet Mefferd Live, host Janet Mefferd linked homosexuality to child sexual abuse, suggested that LGBTQ-inclusive Christianity will destroy churches, and advocated for the harmful and discredited practice of conversion therapy. 

• Mefferd said that parents involved with Drag Queen Story Hour should be “arrested for endangering the welfare of a child.”

• Mefferd claimed that reading books about gender identity to children is “child abuse.”

• Mefferd lamented efforts by churches to include LGBTQ people, attacking inclusive churches for having “no mention of repentance, no mention of turning from sin,” and saying, “This is just not biblical at all. Not at all.” 

• Mefferd claimed that if churches accept LGBTQ people, “your church will be gone, and you won’t get it back.”

• On AFR’s Urban Family Talk Show The Awakening With Bishop E.W. Jackson, host E.W. Jackson equated bestiality to being LGBTQ, asking, “Is bestiality another sexual orientation?” He called it “a legitimate question.”

• Jackson said, “The devil makes homosexuals, not God.” 

• Jackson claimed that people who go by gender neutral pronouns are under the “possession” of “multiple demons.”

•  Jackson questioned whether being a pedophile was a sexual orientation and said that “there’s really no such thing as a sexual orientation,” calling it “a legal fiction” and “a cute phrase … that the far-left and the LGBTQ community has come up with to try to disarm everybody.”

• Jackson said that “LGBTQ activists are some of the most hateful, anti-Christian bigots I have ever seen in my life. I mean, they -- look, in sentiment -- thank God, not in behavior yet -- in sentiment, they are the same as these radical terrorist Islamists who hate Christians."

One Million Moms regularly launches anti-LGBTQ campaigns stood up by disreputable petitions

One Million Moms is apparently led by a single employee named Monica Cole and continues AFA’s original mission of using boycott campaigns and protests to advocate against supposed immorality, including depictions of LGBTQ people, in entertainment media. 

The group regularly launches anti-LGBTQ campaigns attacking organizations for including LGBTQ people in their commercials, content, and otherwise. It has attacked Disney for featuring LGBTQ cartoon characters, Whole Foods for sponsoring Drag Queen Story Hours, and Head & Shoulders for featuring a lesbian couple in a shampoo commercial. 

AFA has also relentlessly tried to boycott Target for its trans-inclusive facilities, and it claims to have met with “senior” Walmart executives earlier this year to discuss an ad featuring a gay couple after the group launched a dubious petition.

In fact, a primary driver of AFA and One Million Moms’ campaigns are petitions that contain few or no security or verification measures. As reporter Nico Lang has noted, the One Million Moms’ petition protesting the Walmart ad was “likely bogus,” as users have historically been able to sign the petitions an unlimited amount of times using “transparently counterfeit” emails and “from the same IP address while using the same web browser.”

Accordingly, media outlets should not legitimize One Million Moms’ anti-LGBTQ crusade by uncritically citing the number of signatures on its online petitions. In coverage of the group’s most recent attack on Hallmark, numerous mainstream media outlets made this mistake.