Earlier this week, we reported that HGTV had canceled its plans for Flip It Forward, a home renovation show starring twin brothers, Jason and David Benham, after word came out that the two (along with their father) had joined in protests against gay marriage, abortion, and Muslims. It was a shocking display of bigotry, considering HGTV fired the brothers simply for wanting to express their love of preventing people from expressing their love and/or being Muslim.
Recently, the Benhams went on CNN to tell their side of the story. “We love homosexuals and love Muslims,” David said, starting things off reasonably well. “The point of this is there’s an agenda that is seeking to silence the voice of men and women of faith,” he continued, even though he should’ve probably just stopped at that first thing. The brothers claim to have had no idea that HGTV was going to fire them, saying the network also never gave them a reason why it decided to do so. Nevertheless, David Benham believes HGTV was “bullied” into making its decision.
“Bullying,” for anyone unfamiliar with the term, is also a good way to describe staging a protest against people who just want to marry the person they love, or who provide abortions to people in need, or who belong to a different faith than you—but that’s neither here nor there. What’s important is that the Benhams now feel like they’ve been shunned from society, as if they’re being rejected simply because of who they are. “Some of those closest to us in this business…are now kind of running from us,” David told Deadline.
Still, he won’t let that keep him and his brother down, saying they’ll “be a voice for truth and help those people that are intimidated by these folks.” For clarification, the “these folks” he’s referring to are not him and his brother; it’s actually the gays and Muslims that he and his brother have protested against. We can understand being confused, though.
In the end, the Benham brothers just want everyone to know that they may “believe in marriage between a man and a woman,” but that they “can also have those beliefs and still be loving and compassionate toward all people.” Unless those people don’t share their beliefs, of course. In which case, fuck ’em. But not literally, because that’s wrong. [via Deadline]