Back in 2016, home renovation and lifestyle power couple Joanna and Chip Gaines faced accusations of anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry. The criticism stemmed from their attendance at a Waco, Texas church that preached against LGBTQ+ equality and basic human rights.
At the time, the couple owned and operated Magnolia Homes, a remodeling and design business in Waco, Texas, and their HGTV program Fixer Upper was a hit. After the show ended in 2018, the couple created their own Magnolia Network in partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery in 2020 to create original content and air other home and lifestyle programs.
The couple was accused of racism in 2020 after they brought their five children onto Emmanuel Acho's YouTube series Conversations with a Black Man in the wake of George Floyd's death. Their questions about raising their children to be "colorblind" didn't go over well.
While there was a positive aspect of the couple trying to educate their children, the children's questions made it painfully obvious there was little to no exposure to non-White culture for this family, despite Joanna Gaines own Korean immigrant mother.
In 2021, Joanna Gaines finally broke the couple's silence, telling The Hollywood Reporter:
"Sometimes I’m like, ‘Can I just make a statement?' The accusations that get thrown at you, like you’re a racist or you don’t like people in the LGBTQ community, that’s the stuff that really eats my lunch—because it’s so far from who we really are. That’s the stuff that keeps me up."
Chip Gaines added:
"In our own company, we’ve got nearly 700 employees, and one of our biggest passions is making this group represent all people."
The programs on Magnolia Network also featured BIPOC and LGBTQ+ hosts.
Now, almost 10 years after being accused of LGBTQ+ bigotry, the couple are drawing fire from the right for being too LGBTQ+ friendly.
In addition to featuring programs with LGBTQ+ hosts, the couple have done home renovations for same sex couples before on their Magnolia Network shows. But including gay fathers with two children on their latest project, reality show Back to the Frontier, was a step too far for some Evangelical Christians.
MAGA minion Franklin Graham—most famous for being the son of the late televangelist Billy Graham and his rabid devotion to Donald Trump—took to Facebook and X to call the couple out.
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Unwilling to remain silent for years this time, Chip Gaines called out the very vocal hate in American Christianity in response.
Gaines wrote:
"Talk, ask qustns, listen.. maybe even learn. Too much to ask of modern American Christian culture. Judge 1st, understand later/never"
"It’s a sad sunday when 'non believers' have never been confronted with hate or vitriol until they are introduced to a modern American Christian"
He ended with a broken heart emoji.
When one person commented that the very existence of a family of four with married gay men as the parents would make him forbid his children to watch, Gaines responded that was OK.
And not all Christians are bigots—they just don't scream as loud as the ones that are.
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On Reddit, one user spelled out why bigoted Christians are having a meltdown.
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On Facebook, where a poster can easily delete dissenting comments, most of the comments on Graham's post reflected his ignorance of the Bible and the intolerance and bigotry American Christianity has become known for.
On X, surprisingly, there was considerable pushback centered on Graham's hypocrisy.
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Back to the Frontier features three families leaving the "21st century behind to live as 1800s pioneers in a social experiment that tests their strength, stamina and sense of humor." The show requires the families to leave all technology behind and live in the types of homes and conditions experienced by mid-late 1800s settlers in the American Midwest.
One of those families is married couple Jason Hanna and Joe Riggs and their 10-year-old twin sons, Ethan and Lucas. Several self-proclaimed Christians posted objections to Hanna and Riggs becoming fathers by "adopting" their children, however the twins were born through a single surrogate pregnancy using two embryos, each created with the sperm of one of the two men.
While adoption plays a role because of parental rights laws, Jason Hanna is the biological father of one twin and Joe Riggs is the biological father of the other twin.
Back to the Frontier is streaming on HBO Max.
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