Have there ever been any Hallmark Channel shows or movies featuring a gay, lesbian or transgender romantic storyline?
I suppose it’s possible, but given their programming content, and what I know about Hallmark, it’s pretty unlikely. Hallmark is a really conservative, traditional company, and they don’t even depict (or even suggest) premarital heterosexual sex in their films.
There hasn’t been any. But that may change.
There was a controversy involving the Hallmark Channel a couple of months ago. They refused to air a commercial featured a same-sex couple getting married. This caused a significant protest.
And Hallmark listened. They publicly reversed their decision and aired the commercial. They announced their initial decision had been wrong. And they also announced they were now “open” to airing movies that depict same-sex relationships.
Upon further review, the answer appears to be a firm “no.”
As per this article from late last year, when there was a few days of bad PR for Hallmark when they refused to run an ad for a wedding-planning company that featured a lesbian couple kissing:
I think there ought to be a place for a Network, or streaming service I guess, to take the same broad approach of formulaic movies as a starting point, but then take them in interesting directions.
For example I have long had this pie-in-the-sky idea of calling a channel Lyric and having only TV movies that are somehow based around the lyrics of songs. Not just the myriad story songs and ballads and love songs that are out there, but anything that comes up in a song can be the beginning of a storyline to take in a unique direction. It could be about an elephant or a car or something if it wanted to be.
Anyway, if you have a formula that works, that brings the eyeballs, then why shouldn’t it work? It shouldn’t need to be squeaky clean goody goody family friendly, that’s not why it works, that’s just Hallmark’s branding weighing so heavily on their shoulders they’re not willing to take risks. Someone should branch out with their own Network, I say.
[DISCLAIMER - my wife watches these movies all the time around Christmas. I’ve gathered the below through osmosis while doing dishes, laundry and hearing the TV in the other room]
Hallmark movies are kind of a unique beast. There seems to be a handful of basic plot elements that are thrown together randomly, and they’re relentlessly upbeat. They never show/explore any actual conflict- the most conflict you typically get is that someone’s bakery is going to close, or their B&B is going to shut or something. Nobody actually faces real poverty, or really abusive relationships or anything like that- it’s always the heroine having trouble making it in the city, or the heroine is dating a workaholic or is engaged to a mildly dickheaded guy.
They’re ALWAYS feel-good movies- they invariably end with the right couple together, the mildly dickheaded ex off doing whatever he always wanted to do, the B&B is saved through the community pulling together (goaded along by the “right” guy in most cases). And there’s NO sex. Not even hints of sex. I think they may have had a real kiss sometime in the last year, but that’s it.
They’re basically aimed at middle-aged, middle class women who want an escapist feel-good fantasy movie that’s not raunchy, that’s not too thought provoking, and where everything and everyone is pretty without being too sexy. I think that’s a big piece of why they seem to be a major employer of actresses who used to be cast in hot young girl roles, but are now in their thirties, such as Lacey Chabert, Alison Sweeney, Danica McKellar and Catherine Bell, or actresses who sort of embody the ethos of the movies, such as Candace Cameron Bure, Jodie Sweetin, and Erin Krakow.
I’d be surprised to see a gay character in a Hallmark movie even as the heroine’s best friend, much less as the star of the show, but I suspect it’s not too far off. But I wouldn’t hold my breath on seeing a gay love story produced/shown on Hallmark anytime soon.
The kisses are very formulaic – there’s usually a “near-miss kiss” (i.e., they’re about to kiss, when something interrupts them) about 2/3 of the way through the film, and that’s typically followed by a misunderstanding which causes the heroine and the guy to briefly “break up.”
Then, in the last 5-10 minutes, there’s the first real kiss, when the two of them get back together, followed by a somewhat longer kiss when they pledge to get married (or at least stay together).
surprised there is not a bollywood channel but maybe I am biased since there are many Indians in my area. Maybe they could import a channel from India. Those movies rarely show kissing.
Storyline? No, at least not that I’ve seen. Supporting characters within a story line? Yes, but it’s understated. So you might have two good-looking men in their late 30’s living in the same house and throwing the Christmas party that the two main characters go to. Or two women having dinner together on Valentines Day while the main characters have the sudden fortunate moment that saves their restaurant. I don’t recall any transgender characters.
Just want to point out that Freeform (which used to be ABC Family and very conservative, but is now one of the most LGBTQ-friendly networks around), aired a fun romantic comedy featuring two men for Valentine’s Day 2020. They had a lot of publicity calling it the first gay rom-com.
I watched and enjoyed it, although I quickly realized that it is just a same-sex remake of When Harry Met Sally. It’s called The Thing About Harry, but it might as well be called When Harry met Sam.
It does strike me as amusing that Freeform has moved in this direction, since they inherited the contract that existed when The Family Channel was spun off from Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network in 1990. As part of that contract, Freeform is still obligated to carry Robertson’s ultra-conservative The 700 Club.
I’ll bet at least half the women you named would absolutely kill to be the first actress cast as a same-sex romantic lead in a Hallmark Channel movie.
Freeform has taken to running very amusing disclaimers prior to The 700 Club that very politely make it absolutely clear how they feel about it.
That is utterly awesome. 
I must say the lawyers who drafted that contract for Pat Robertson had to be brilliant because it survived the channel being bought out twice. Disney offered him $42 million to buy it out but he refused.
I think it’s probably more accurate to say the 700 Club lets Freeform use the channel the other hours of the day.
Sure- it’s work, right? I wasn’t trying to imply anything about the actresses, but rather that the audience identifies more with them than the hot young actresses in Hollywood.
Fundamentally, Hallmark has discovered a formula that works- relatively low budget, formulaic movies that portray a certain fantasy to a specific demographic. They are not on a social justice crusade to portray people of color, LGBT people, oppressed minorities, etc… They are not aiming or marketing the movies to me (straight man) either.
So it doesn’t really make sense that they’d include any LGBT content, much less center a story around it. First, it’s diverging from the formula. I mean, you could make many of the same movies with gay couples, but the target audience wouldn’t identify with them the way they do the people they cast. Second, if you made the movie about a trans person, it would kind of have to center around the transgender angle- otherwise it would just be a man and a woman, right?
Either way, all that diverges from the formula that works, and they’re not in it to prove any points or change any minds, so they’re unlikely to do it until there’s actually market demand for it. If they were to find out that 33% of their actual audience was gay, they’d crank out about 1/3 gay-related formula movies, I guarantee. But I doubt that’s actually the case.
in another thread I mentioned how Harry Hamlin was assumed to be gay after he played a gay character in a movie in the 80s. His career went downhill until he got on LA Law . I don’t think that would be a problem today for an actor or actress. For 1 thing they could just hire someone who is openly gay.