Neal Bledsoe Leaves Great American Family Following Candace Cameron Bure’s “Traditional Marriage” Controversy

Great American Family actor Neal Bledsoe is leaving the network after Candace Cameron Bure’s controversial comments about only featuring “traditional marriage” between heterosexual couples in Christmas films.

In a statement to Variety, he said, “My life wouldn’t be where it is today without the love, support, and guidance of the LGBTQIA+ community.”

“As someone who struggled as a young man with our society’s extremely narrow definition of masculinity, it was their community that provided me with refuge and a guiding light when my life felt lost,” he stated, adding, “And now, if I cannot stand up for that community in their time of need, my debt to them means nothing.”

Calling his support for the community “unconditional,” Bledsoe shared, “Nothing is worth my silence or their ability to live and love freely in a world that we are lucky enough to share with them.”

The actor’s departure from Great American Family — which was formerly known as Great American Country (GAC) — comes after he starred in multiple titles for the network, including The Winter Palace and Christmas at the Drive-In. He has also worked with Hallmark, appearing in 2017’s Coming Home for Christmas and 2020’s The Christmas Carousel.

His statement is a response to Bure’s comments to the The Wall Street Journal in which she said her upcoming projects with GAC will differ from her past Christmas works at Hallmark by putting “Christianity back into Christmas movies” and “keep[ing] traditional marriage at the core,” insinuating that gay couples will not be included.

Bledsoe alluded to the controversy, saying in his statement to Variety, “Everyone is entitled to their beliefs, and these are mine: the recent comments made by leadership at Great American Family are hurtful, wrong, and reflect an ideology that prioritizes judgment over love.”

He continued, “I could never forgive myself for continuing my relationship with a network that actively chooses to exclude the LGBTQIA+ community.”

Bure’s comments were previously denounced by One Tree Hill alum Hilarie Burton Morgan and singer JoJo Siwa.

The Full House actress later issued an apology for her words, saying, “All of you who know me, know beyond question that I have great love and affection for all people. It absolutely breaks my heart that anyone would ever think I intentionally would want to offend and hurt anyone.” She went on to blame the media for “seeking to divide us” during the Christmas holiday.

Read Neal Bledsoe’s full statement below, per Variety:

My life wouldn’t be where it is today without the love, support, and guidance of the LGBTQIA+ community. From my mentors in college, to the myriad of agents and managers, writers and directors, teachers and colleagues, and, of course, my dear friends and family, who have all touched my life, I owe them a great debt. As someone who struggled as a young man with our society’s extremely narrow definition of masculinity, it was their community that provided me with refuge and a guiding light when my life felt lost. And now, if I cannot stand up for that community in their time of need, my debt to them means nothing. So, I want to be very clear: my support for the LGBTQIA+ community is unconditional – nothing is worth my silence or their ability to live and love freely in a world that we are lucky enough to share with them.

You may have noticed that I have been unusually silent at a time when I should have been promoting a holiday film, a film with the express purpose of bringing everyone comfort in a time of great tumult and change, but I cannot continue with business as usual. I cannot take comfort from, nor will I give refuge to, those who excuse exclusion and promote division in any way, shape, or form. Everyone is entitled to their beliefs, and these are mine: the recent comments made by leadership at Great American Family are hurtful, wrong, and reflect an ideology that prioritizes judgment over love. I was raised as a Christian, and believe in the essential message of love and forgiveness. That said, I could never forgive myself for continuing my relationship with a network that actively chooses to exclude the LGBTQIA+ community.

Freedoms of speech or religion, or even the freedom to express beliefs that I might vehemently disagree with, are not the issue here. This is about someone in an executive position speaking about deliberate exclusion on behalf of an entire network. This is why the phrase “traditional marriage” is as odious as it is baffling. Not simply wrong in its morality, it’s also a moot point, when you consider that most romantic movies don’t feature married couples at all, nor even weddings, but simply people meeting and falling in love. To describe that love and the full human representation of the LGBTQIA+ community as a “trend” is also both troubling and confusing. When institutions such as the Mormon Church support marriage equality, and join the vast majority of Americans who already believe in the fundamental right to love who and how we please – and when that right is about to be codified into the law of the land – one has to ask not what are the trends, but whether any organization that stands against such love would be trending toward the dustbin of history?

As I thought about this statement, I reached out to a dear friend of mine for guidance, a man who grew up out and brown in the South, when it was even more dangerous to do so then than it is now. He reminded me of the courage of Elizabeth Taylor, who visited the lonely pariahs dying of AIDS in Reagan’s America when our society wanted nothing to do with them. Her compassion was neither cool, nor woke, nor a virtue signal, it was just the right thing to do, especially when much of our culture chose cruelty. Decades later, it galls me to think that some among us are still finding ways to justify a crueler world under the cloak of faith, tradition, or, even worse, audience share.

When we were discussing this, my friend wrote the following to me, which I share here with his permission, as his words speak to this more personally, eloquently, and truthfully than anything I could possibly say:

“The unchanging gift of those Christmas narratives is the belief in a happy ending. The most devastating mendacity — the one that snuffs out the light in us — is the belief that happiness is impossible with us in the picture. Worse yet: that we do not deserve happiness simply because of who we are. The animus is not simply to hate the sin; it’s to get the sinner to hate themselves so much that they capitulate to this corrosive narrative. The irony that a network with the word ‘family’ in its name chooses to punish the very people who understand the meaning of the word, in the most profound way, is not lost on me. The overwhelming data on the overlap of homelessness and the LGBTQIA+ community reflects the failures of American families in their most basic role: parents and caregivers have chosen a cruel narrative over lives that deserve love and support, for which they are responsible. And the only way we survive that abrogation of duty is to create our own families and our own version of what unconditional love looks like.”

As an artist, I yearn to be proud of the work I create. But, the thought that my work could be used to deliberately discriminate against anyone horrifies and infuriates me. I hope GAF will change, but until everyone can be represented in their films with pride, my choice is clear. I look forward to working with creators who put no limits on the stories we tell and follow through on their message of values with open arms. In that spirit, I will be making a donation to True Colors United, and if these words have any resonance with you, I hope you will join me.