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topicnews · July 16, 2025

Chip Gaines defends the decision to record the gay couple on the show “Back to the Frontier”

Chip Gaines defends the decision to record the gay couple on the show “Back to the Frontier”


The television personality Chip Gaines defended the recording of a same -sex couple in “Back to the Frontier”, a new show with him and his wife Joanna, about families who give up the technology and try to live as a homeesteader in the 19th century.

The show shows the married couple Jason Hanna and Joe Riggs and their 10-year-old twin sons who reacted the counter-reaction of prominent religious conservative online.

Franklin Graham, the son of the Protestant pastor Billy Graham, said in a contribution on social media that the casting of a gay couple was “very disappointing”.

“While we humans should love, we should love them enough to tell them the truth of God's word,” said Graham. “His word is the absolute truth. God loves us, and his design for marriage is between a man and a woman. Funding something that defines God as sin is sin in itself.”

The Hanna-Krigs family on “Back to the Frontier”.Magnolia Network/Max/Warner Bros. Discovery

Gaines answered the criticism in a social media contribution on Sunday and encouraged people to ask questions and “maybe even learn”.

He added: “It is a sad Sunday where” non -believers “were never confronted with hatred or vitriol until they are introduced to a modern American Christian.”

Gaines reacted to dozens of other critics to defend Hanna and Riggs' inclusion on the show, quoted biblical verses and said there are other television programs that could see critics.

In response to a critic who said: “We are extremely sad because we admire and appreciate them both,” replied Gaines and encouraged the Christians, “not to judge” and “love”.

Hanna thanked Chip and Joanna Gaines in a contribution in his Instagram story on Tuesday for “Leading with love, hearing and learning”.

“Representation is deeply important – especially for those who still find the courage to live their truth,” Hanna said in a longer contribution and answered the counter -reaction of some conservatives. “When families are visible, it opens the doors that others feel safe, loved and validated. Visibility is not just about being seen. It is about ensuring that nobody feels alone.”

The Gaineses have already faced setbacks, but more often from those who support LGBTQ rights. You visit the antioch community church, an Evangelical Church in Waco, Texas, which opposes same-sex marriage. In an interview from 2021 with the Hollywood reporter, Joanna Gaines said that the couple was racist and anti-LGBTQ “so far from what we really are” and that the criticism is “what it is up to me”.

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