Hallmark in a tizzy as it changes carol lyrics to cut out the word 'gay'
Hallmark has run into trouble with a new Christmas ornament shaped like a festive sweater with the message: "Don we now our fun apparel."
Hallmark: Not so 'gay'
The word "fun"replaces "gay" from the 'Deck the Halls' Christmas carol lyric about wearing cheerful festive clothes and changed it to avoid implicitly referencing homosexuality.
That's right: In attempting to avoid a controversy, Hallmark has apparently offended almost everyone, the San Francisco Chronicle reports today.
"There is nothing wrong with the word 'gay,' " Dave Thompson wrote on the company's Facebook page. "It can mean fun, happy, excited, exuberant - and it refers to gay people. ... There's nothing wrong with either! Bad Hallmark! Bad!"
Jerrilyn York Thompson complained: "Hallmark claims to be the keeper of traditional values; then, you change the words to a centuries old Christmas Carol to appease maybe 2 percent of the population. I am so sick of this PC society that will defer to whatever fringe of society that is yelling the loudest."
"Our GAY family will (return) any Hallmark cards received," a writer named Richie recently tweeted to Hallmark. "Straight America is offended!" wrote Joyce McNealy on Facebook.
Hallmark, issued the following explanation: "Today (the word 'gay') has multiple meanings, which we thought could leave our intent open to misinterpretation. The trend of wearing festively decorated Christmas sweaters to parties is all about fun, and this ornament is intended to play into that, so the planning team decided to say what we meant: 'fun.' "
According to a Hallmark spokesperson, the ornament is still for sale in Hallmark Gold Crown stores.
To be fair, Hallmark's probably right that an outlandish sweater with the words "Don we now our gay apparel!" would also cause some confusion. Would it be implying that all holiday sweaters somehow looked gay? That all gay people wear ridiculous Christmas sweaters? What about gay people who don't celebrate Christmas?
If Hallmark was worried that "gay apparel" would offend people -maybe the right move would have been to avoid the lyric at all, says the Chronicle. The company could have released a sweater-shaped ornament with no writing on it, just like it apparently did in 2003.