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If you’ve ever found yourself wasting a weekend watching HGTV, then you’re probably familiar with Chip and Joanna Gaines. The ebullient and photogenic Texas couple hosts a popular show called Fixer Upper where they help families (and sometimes singletons) purchase houses in disarray and then they give the new homes a facelift. It’s a really fun show and it has introduced all of America to shiplap.
Well, Fixer Upper has recently come under fire. Buzzfeed writer Kate Aurthur wrote a piece that dug into the Gaineses’ religious beliefs. See, the family attends the Antioch Community Church, which is run by Pastor Jimmy Seibert, a man who is morally against gay marriage and believes that gay conversion therapy is a good idea. The Buzzfeed piece linked these religious practices, also noting that Fixer Upper is one of the only shows on HGTV that has never featured a gay couple. Naturally, this set off a bit of a kerfluffle online with some fans turning on the Gaineses and others alleging that Buzzfeed was discriminating against the Gaineses’ religious values.
On Friday, HGTV issued a statement on the controversy: “We don’t discriminate against members of the LGBT community in any of our shows. HGTV is proud to have a crystal clear, consistent record of including people from all walks of life in its series.”
However, neither Chip nor Joanna Gaines have released a official statement, though Chip has been tweeting about it. Over the weekend, he fired off two tweets. One asked fans to respect Aurthur and Cosmopolitan writer Gina Mei (who reported on Aurthur’s original piece).
The next day Gaines tweeted this:
Even though the two have yet to release and official statement on their position, this tweet seems to confirm that the Gaines family is sticking by their church regardless of the controversy.
