HBO Maxās new reality experiment, Back to the Frontier, just premiered, but the show has already become a culture-war flashpoint thanks to the presence of Texas husbands Jason Hanna and Joe Riggs with their 10-year-old twin sons. The series, produced by Magnolia Networkās Chip and Joanna Gaines, drops three modern families into an 1880s homestead and strips away every 21st-century convenience.
Over the weekend, evangelical heavyweight Franklin Graham called the casting āvery disappointing,ā warning that āpromoting something God defines as sin is in itself sin.ā
The American Family Association, an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group, piled on, accusing the Gaineses of abandoning ābiblical valuesā by showcasing what it calls the āsanctity of marriage.ā
Gaines, a longtime darling of Christian viewers from his HGTV Fixer Upper days, fired back in his own thread. āTalk, ask questions, listen.. maybe even learn,ā he wrote. āToo much to ask of modern American Christian culture. Judge 1st, understand later/never.ā
He added that it was āa sad Sunday when ānon believersā have never been confronted with hate or vitriol until they are introduced to a modern American Christian.ā
For Hanna and Riggs, visibility was the point. āWeāre your neighbors and coworkers,ā Hanna told Queerty, āso it was an amazing opportunity to normalize same-sex couples and families.ā The couple, who wed in Washington, D.C., in 2013 and spent years fighting Texas law for parental recognition, say reliving 19th-century hardships was nothing compared to the legal battles they faced back home.
While detractors rage online, the inclusion has galvanized queer viewers and stoked fresh interest in the show. The dadsā Instagram, @2_dallas_dads, gained thousands of followers after Thursdayās premiere, and hashtags like #FrontierDads and #ChipStandsUp trended over the weekend.
Beyond the backlash, Back to the Frontier offers a rare snapshot of LGBTQ+ representation in historical-style reality TV. Riggs noted that same-sex couples escaped city ostracism by homesteading together in the real 1880sāa stark reminder that queer families have always existed, even if todayās critics refuse to see them.
New episodes drop on Thursdays on HBO Max and Magnolia Network. Whether angry tweets help or hurt ratings, the Hanna-Riggs clan is already homesteading squarely in the national spotlight. For many viewers, thatās the win that matters.
