Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar’s attempt at spreading love majorly backfired when they started deleting photos of gay couples kissing from their Facebook page.
The 19 Kids and Counting stars presented their fans with a “kissing challenge” on Facebook after a photo of Jessa Duggar locking lips with husband Ben Seewald went viral. Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar attempted to replicate the younguns’ smooch, and they posted the result on the Duggar family’s official Facebook page.
It was accompanied by a message explaining why the 19 Kids and Counting stars decided to share the intimate photo.
“God designed marriage to be a loving, dynamic relationship between a husband and wife for a lifetime. God loves marriage and it is supposed to be full of love, joy, fun and romance. Marriage is where romance belongs! Recently, Ben & Jessa received some criticism for posting a kissing picture. We are so grateful they waited to share their first kiss until after marriage. We’ve been married 30 years and are still in love! We had fun trying to duplicate Ben and Jessa’s happily married kissing picture. We challenge all married couples to take a happily married picture and post it here.”
As the Inquisitr previously reported, many gay and lesbian couples decided to join the kissing challenge . However, Jim Bob Duggar, Michelle Duggar, or whoever runs their Facebook page allegedly wasn’t feeling the love — someone started deleting photos of same-sex couples. According to Us Weekly , blogger John Becker and his husband were one of the couples to have their photos removed.
In a post on his blog, the Bilerico Project , Becker explained that he learned about the Duggar kissing challenge from blogger Joe Jervis. Jervis called upon same-sex couples to post their kissing photos on the Duggar Facebook page, and soon it was flooded with pictures of happy LGBTQ couples. Becker’s photo (top left) was one of hundreds of pictures shared in response to Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar’s kissing challenge.
Unfortunately, Becker later revealed that the Duggars had removed his photo from the Facebook post — and his wasn’t the only picture pulled from the page.
“More and more same-sex couples began answering Joe’s call and posting their own kissing photos, and the likes and positive comments started piling up! Before long, the thread had turned into a beautiful celebration of love and equality.”
“Of course, the Duggars didn’t like that, so they started yanking photos of same-sex couples kissing and banning the people who posted them, myself included. It’s their page, of course, so they have every right to do that. But as I noted, the whole episode says something about them and their gay panic-saturated worldview.”
So many photos were being yanked from the post that someone started a special “Duggars Family Official Blocked GLBT Wedding Photos ” Facebook page. Couples who were victims of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar’s delete spree were encouraged to share their kissing photos in a friendlier environment without worry of being banned or erased.
Numerous photos of same-sex couples still appear on the Duggar family Facebook page, so whoever was deleting them either gave up or couldn’t keep up with massive amount of pictures being posted. Many of the photos received responses from commenters expressing their concern that the pictures would be removed.
That last photo is internet famous — it’s a wedding picture of lesbian couple Lela McArthur and Stephanie Figarelle of Anchorage, Alaska on their wedding day. According to the Huffington Post , Fox News once used it to illustrate an article chastising young women for being feminists who don’t embrace old fashioned, 1950’s-style marriages with defined gender roles.
The article had nothing to do with gay marriage , so whoever chose the picture was evidently looking for a photo of a straight bride and groom.
What do you think of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar’s decision to delete photos of same-sex couples?
[Images via John Becker /Facebook, Fox News via the Huffington Post , Duggar Family Official Facebook page]