Lifetime has announced it will release its first-ever Christmas movie featuring a gay couple as the film’s lead.
The film, entitled, “The Christmas Setup,” will star real-life couple Ben Lewis and Blake Lee, according to a report by Variety.
“The world we create on camera should reflect the world we live in,” said Amy Winter, executive vice president and head of programming, Lifetime and LMN.
Winter added the movie, along with another upcoming film, “A Sugar & Spice Holiday” — which is centered on an Asian American Family — “are important additions to the It’s a Wonderful Lifetime slate because they continue our effort to tell the stories of the diverse communities represented by our viewers.”
“Our hope with these inclusive films and others is that people will see themselves while enjoying universally relatable holiday romances,” added Winter.
Lifetime added it will also be working with GLAAD and CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment), on the respective movies, to ensure they accurately represent the communities they are trying to depict.
As for Lifetime’s first-ever film featuring a gay couple as its lead, the movie follows a New York lawyer, Hugo, who returns to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to spend the holidays with his mother, who then arranges for him to run into his secret high school crush, Patrick.
This move should be of no surprise, as executives at Hallmark Channel and Lifetime have previously expressed they would like to “expand diversity” by making more LGBTQ-focused Christmas movies.
Executives have reportedly noted that simply having LGBTQ characters in their movies is not enough when it comes to remedying alleged diversity issues, and that Christmas movies should eventually be featuring leading LGBTQ characters.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, on Parler at @alana, and on Instagram.
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