A gay man has come to the defense of Chip and Joanna Gaines, the hosts of HGTV’s “Fixer Upper,” after Buzzfeed reported that their pastor preaches that homosexuality is a sin.
The Buzzfeed article quoted the Gaines’ pastor’s stated position on same-sex marriage and homosexual acts, but did not shed light on what the Gaines themselves believe. It also posed a hypothetical question as to whether the HGTV hosts would feature a same-sex couple on their show.
Brandon Ambrosino, a Delaware writer who says he is about to marry his same-sex partner, wrote in an op-ed for the Washington Post that the “hit piece” on the Gaines is “dangerous.”
Ambrosino wrote that, although he is hurt some Christian friends have told him they cannot attend his wedding, “I do not think these conservatives should be shamed or mocked. I do not think they should be fired. And I certainly do not think they should be the butt of a popular BuzzFeed article.”
He argued that the article is comprised of merely “speculation and suggestion.”
Ambrosino wrote that the article “validates everything that President-elect Donald Trump’s supporters have been saying about the media.”
The article is evidence, he argued, “that some journalists — specifically younger ones at popular digital publications — will tell stories in certain deceitful, manipulative ways to take down conservatives. (And really, I can’t for the life of me imagine any other intention of the Gaines story.)”
“Stories such as this will serve only to reinforce the growing chasm between the media and Trump, which means we are in for four agonizing, tedious years of ‘gotcha’ non-stories like this one,” he added.
Ambrosino argued that “shaming religious people as homophobic for simply being one of the many millions of Americans in 2016 who attend a religious congregation that does not support same-sex marriage” is not a good course of action for supporters of same-sex marriage.
“That is not a good move for activism or journalism,” he added.