Chip Gaines Hits Back At Critics Of Gay Dads Featured On New Reality Series

Former HGTV star Chip Gaines issued a pointed response to conservative critics angered by the inclusion of a same-sex couple on the new series “Back to the Frontier,” which he executive produces with his wife, Joanna Gaines. 

“Talk, ask qustns, listen.. maybe even learn. Too much to ask of modern American Christian culture,” the former “Fixer Upper” co-host wrote Sunday on X. “Judge 1st, understand later/never It’s a sad sunday when ‘non believers’ have never been confronted with hate or vitriol until they are introduced to a modern American Christian.”

Though Chip Gaines’ post steered clear of specifics, he and Joanna Gaines have in recent weeks weathered backlash for casting Jason Hanna and Joe Riggs on “Back to the Frontier,” which debuted last week on Magnolia Network and HBO Max. According to press notes, the series spotlights three families as they “reimagine their lives as 1880s homesteaders, challenged to forgo the comforts of the present day for a more analog life on the frontier.”

Hanna and Riggs are based in Texas and run the popular Instagram account, 2 Dallas Dads. They share 10-year-old twin sons, Ethan and Lucas. 

Chip and Joanna Gaines do not appear on “Back to the Frontier,” but are involved in the show as executive producers. The couple ― who are affiliated with the Antioch Community Church, a nondenominational, evangelical church based in Waco, Texas ― drew ire from some Christian conservatives who deemed Hanna and Riggs’ family “unbiblical.” 

“I hope this isn’t true, but I read today that Chip and Joanna Gaines are featuring a gay couple in their new series. If It is true, it is very disappointing,” Franklin Graham, the son of the late evangelical pastor Billy Graham, wrote on X. “While we are to love people, we should love them enough to tell them the truth of God’s Word. His Word is absolute truth. God loves us, and His design for marriage is between one man and one woman. Promoting something that God defines as sin is in itself sin.”

Ed Vitagliano, the vice president of the American Family Association, felt similarly. 

“This is sad and disappointing, because Chip and Joanna Gaines have been very influential in the evangelical community,” he said. “Moreover, in the past, they have stood firm on the sanctity of marriage regardless of the personal cost that has entailed.”

He added, “We aren’t sure why the Gaines have reversed course, but we are sure of this: Back to the Frontier promotes an unbiblical view of human sexuality, marriage, and family –– a view no Christian should embrace.”

The couple’s stance on the LGBTQ+ community has been the subject of ample media discourse over the years. A 2016 BuzzFeed report described the Antioch Community Church as being “firmly against same-sex marriage,” also pointing out that “Fixer Upper” had not yet included a queer couple.

“The accusations that get thrown at you, like you’re a racist or you don’t like people in the LGBTQ community, that’s the stuff that really eats my lunch — because it’s so far from who we really are,” she said. “That’s the stuff that keeps me up.”

On Tuesday, Riggs publicly thanked Chip and Joanna Gaines for “leading with love, listening and learning” on his Instagram Stories. In an interview with the LGBTQ+ news outlet Queerty last week, Riggs said he was initially hesitant to appear on “Back to the Frontier,” but eventually got “on board with the whole concept of continuing to normalize same-sex families.”

“That’s one of the reasons we put ourselves out there, because of our adoption issues and feeling the need that other families have other struggles still in other states,” he said. “So it was just important for us to continue to spread that message.”

Watch the trailer for “Back to the Frontier” below.