Hallmark, you’re in the love business. We know you’re better than gay wedding stumble

Kansas City’s best-known corporate citizen, Hallmark Cards, Inc., initially botched its handling of an ad featuring a lesbian couple kissing during their wedding ceremony, but the company eventually settled on the right decision this weekend by reinstating the banned commercial.

Love and commitment are things to be celebrated, not criticized or suppressed, something Hallmark — and all of America — should know.

The episode was a serious stumble for Hallmark, which is usually more sure-footed on matters of tolerance. This began in early December when the Hallmark Channel aired a series of commercials from Zola.com, a company that provides online wedding services.

One of the ads included a same-sex couple at the altar, discussing the need for a “custom wedding website” for guests. It’s a humorous commercial that ends when the two women happily kiss before walking down the aisle.

That very PG-rated loving embrace was apparently too much for One Million Moms, a group which pressures media companies to conform to socially conservative views of morality and propriety.

“Family entertainment is not the outlet in which to be politically correct by forcing tolerance and acceptance of homosexuality,” the group said last week.

Hallmark’s television subsidiary initially agreed. It pulled four Zola.com commercials, including those with lesbian couples, claiming the spots violated company policy.

An ad featuring a kissing heterosexual couple was left on the air, though. That prompted fierce criticism from gay and lesbian groups, which rightly called Hallmark’s decision discriminatory and hypocritical.

On Sunday, Hallmark reversed course. “We are truly sorry for the hurt and disappointment this has caused,” said Mike Perry, Hallmark’s president and CEO. The company promised to reach out to Zola.com and reinstate the ads.

On Monday, the company apologized to its workforce in an internal email.

Hallmark is a private company, and under the First Amendment, it has a right to reject any advertising it deems inappropriate. The government properly played no role in this dispute.

But Hallmark clearly erred in overreacting to complaints about the commercial, which tastefully celebrates love and friendship, two key components of the company’s business model since its founding.

Anyone who has spent a holiday evening with the Hallmark Channel — and, admit it, that’s most of us — has seen plenty of kissing on TV. It’s what loving couples do.

They also get married. “No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family,” the U.S. Supreme Court said when it legalized same-sex weddings.

Sadly, One Million Moms and similar groups still reject marriage for some Americans, an affront to the law and to decency.

For those offended by the Zola.com ad, we offer a simple recommendation: Turn to another channel, or turn off the TV. No one is forcing you to watch a committed couple’s kiss or chuckle at a late-arriving wedding guest.

The rest of America is free to embrace love and affection, in all their wonder, on television. That’s what the Hallmark Channel is for.

This story was originally published December 16, 2019 at 3:09 PM.