It was extremely disappointing to read that the Hallmark Channel, citing “controversial” content, had pulled its ads for the online wedding site, Zola, featuring a same-sex couple getting married. Zola responded by pulling all of their ads from Hallmark rather than be subject to censorship.

It all started when a known anti-LGBTQ group called One Million Moms (part of the Christian-right American Family Association) protested against the depiction of a same-sex couple getting married in the Zola ad.

Hallmark immediately caved to this group’s pressure and in response, Zola’s chief marketing officer, Mike Chi, put out a statement saying that “all kisses, couples and marriages are equal celebrations of love and we will no longer be advertising on Hallmark.”

What’s heartening is that there was a huge public outcry against the Hallmark Channel. Celebrities like singer Chely Wright and comedian Ellen DeGeneres weighed in, as well as politicians including Pete Buttigieg and California’s Governor Gavin Newsom. Even Netflix chimed in with their support. Spotify offered to play the ads that Hallmark had rejected, decrying Hallmark’s decision.

GLAAD launched a #BoycottHallmarkChannel hashtag that had over 16,000 retweets as of December 14th.

And now, after the huge negative response to the Hallmark Channel’s actions, their CEO, Mike Perry, said that they “will be reaching out to Zola to reestablish our partnership and reinstate the commercials.”

A statement was released over the December 14th weekend saying that “The Crown Media team has been agonizing over this decision as we’ve seen the hurt it has unintentionally caused. Said simply, they believe this was the wrong decision. Our mission is rooted in helping all people connect, celebrate traditions and be inspired to capture meaningful moments in their lives. Anything that detracts from this purpose is not who we are. We are truly sorry for the hurt and disappointment this has caused. … Across our brand, we will continue to look for ways to be more inclusive and celebrate our differences.”

All of this hurt and conflict could have been avoided if the Hallmark Channel had acted with some integrity, rather than caving in to pressure from a group that has already shown its true colors when it asked for a boycott of Disney over a gay character, targeted Urban Outfitters over a same-sex kiss, and protested against Toy Story 4 for depicting a same-sex couple picking up their kid from school.

One Million Moms is considered a certified hate group, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, and they’re known to have a long history of exaggerating their membership numbers.

Mike Chi spoke on the E News Daily Pop show recently, saying that Zola had heard from “thousands of people” who were happy that they’d pulled their ads from the Hallmark Channel. He also said that Zola is running the same ads on “dozens of networks” and that “we haven’t gotten any pushback from any (of the other networks) and we were surprised when we got pushback from Hallmark.”

Chi reacted to Hallmark’s about-face, saying that “we’re really relieved that they’ve changed course here…and that they’re trying to make things right.” He said that he’d “love to hear from them directly” to hear what they plan to do and that in the meantime, he can “empathize” with the people who want to boycott the channel. He added that “I personally love a good rom-com so I’m sad to miss out on those, but I wouldn’t have done anything differently.”

It’s almost 2020 and same-sex marriage has been signed into law in Canada, the US and many other parts of the world.

Hallmark should get with the times. Also, they really should have thought twice before having such a knee-jerk reaction to a known hate group that targets even the subtlest depictions of LGBTQ people on-screen.

Hallmark has a big mess to clean up but like any mistakes we make as individuals, institutions or companies, there’s always an important opportunity to take a step back and contemplate the learning to be gained.

There are several important lessons that Hallmark as a company can take away from this.

1. If you preach love and connection, try not to be a hypocrite and cave to pressure from a hate group;

2. In 2020 inclusiveness always beats marginalization, and it’s absurd to view same sex-marriage as controversial;

3. Always think before you act in response to outside pressure. Consider who is pressuring you, and why. Consider why you’re even thinking of placating them. The fact is that the One Million Moms group is not and never has been an organization to be taken seriously, let alone placated;

4. In 2020, if you want to be a success in business, you simply can’t alienate people by being prejudiced, tone-deaf or grossly insensitive.

As a final note, the delightful actor Meredith Baxter is a Hallmark Channel regular and she’s appearing in one of this season’s Hallmark Channel films, “Naughty or Nice,” with Hilarie Burton and Michael Gross.

It’s not surprising that we haven’t heard from Ms. Baxter about this controversy, but I do wonder what she’s going through, given that she is part of the LGBTQ community and got married to her long-time girlfriend, Nancy Locke, in 2013. What must it feel like to be in her shoes, right now?