Maren Morris Campaigns to ‘Make DJ Gay Again’ Following Candace Cameron Bure’s Anti-LGBTQ Comments

17 November, 2022

If dunking on anti-LGBTQ rhetoric is a skill, then Maren Morris is an expert at this point.

The country star posted a comment on Instagram on Tuesday calling out actress Candace Cameron Bure for her recent comments on “traditional marriage” and queer characters. Writing under a post from LGBTQ influencer Matt Bernstein, Morris said “Make DJ Gay Again,” a reference to Bure’s most famous role as DJ Tanner on Full House and the 2016 reboot, Fuller House.

Morris is far from the only star to call the actress out — JoJo Siwa posted an Instagram on Tuesday calling Bure’s comments “rude and hurtful,” and GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis issued a damning statement saying it was “irresponsible and hurtful for Candace Cameron Bure to use tradition as a guise for exclusion.”

The backlash came after Bure gave an interview to the Wall Street Journal regarding her departure from Hallmark, her new executive role at conservative network Great American Family, and what fans could expect from the Christmas movies she is set to star in there. When asked whether or not the network would include LGBTQ couples in their projects, Bure said they would “keep traditional marriage at the core.”

Since the backlash, Bure published a statement via her Instagram, where she said that it “breaks my heart that anyone would ever think I intentionally would want to offend and hurt anyone.” The actress also attempted to shift blame toward media coverage of her comments, saying that media companies were “seeking to divide us, even around a subject as comforting and merry as Christmas movies.”

Stopping short of an apology and never directly addressing the community she offended, Bure instead insisted that she “loves” everyone. “To the members of the media responsible for using this opportunity to fan flames of conflict and hate, I have a simple message: I love you anyway,” she wrote. “To those who hate what I value and who are attacking me online: I love you. To those who have tried to assassinate my character: I love you.”

Naturally, the star’s statement wasn’t sufficient for many in the community. Out singer-songwriter Wrabel commented on Bure’s post, saying that he didn’t buy her claim to love. “love is not typing ‘i love you.’ love is action. love supports. love listens. tries to understand,” he wrote. “if jesus was here today he’d be flipping tables at that network.”

This isn’t the first time that Morris has weighed in on LGBTQ issues this year. Following some openly transphobic comments from Jason Aldean’s wife Brittany, Morris joined fellow country star Cassadee Pope in calling her out, dubbing Brittany “Insurrection Barbie” in a tweet. When Fox News talking head Tucker Carlson called Morris a “lunatic” and a “fake country music singer” for her comments, the “Middle” singer created t-shirts that read “lunatic country music person,” and later donated over $100,000 worth of proceeds to GLAAD’s Transgender Media Program and Trans Lifeline.

Check out Morris’s comment here, as well as Bure’s official statement below: