Gay Nativity Scene

Submission 12,289

About

Gay Nativity Scene refers to a series of jokes, references and reactions to picture of a Christmas Nativity Scene featuring two Josephs, the father of Jesus Christ.

Background

On November 23rd, 2017, comedian Cameron Espoisto tweeted ^[1] a picture of her neighbor's nativity scene, which featured two Josephs wearing pink outfits. She captioned the post (shown below), "Our neighbors’ two Joseph nativity is up & I’m beaming 🎄👬." Within five days, the post received more than 3,200 retweets and 22,000 likes.

Precursor

The Daily Mail newspaper has reported on several gay nativity scenes. In December 2012, the outlet^[5] published an article on a homosexual nativity scene that was called "sacralidge" in Columbia (shown below, left).

On December 19th, 2016, the Daily Mail^[6] reported that tree ornaments featuring "gay nativity" scenes were being denounced by Christian groups (shown below, right).

Development

Most people responded to Esposito's tweet positively. Twitter^[2] user @Rogue_Mrs. Lady tweeted a picture of a nativity featuring two Marys. She captioned the post (shown below, left) "Here's my gaytivity scene with 2 Marys. ❤️." Twitter^[3] user @tindillpickle tweeted a picture (shown below, right) of Jesus with the caption "Jesus Had Two Dads and He Turned Out Alright."

On November 28th, Facebook ^[4] user Bishop Thomas J. Tobin posted a picture of the nativity with a captioning denouncing the scene. He wrote, "A Gay Nativity? Just came across this photo of a “gay nativity” scene -- two Josephs dressed in pink watching over the Christ Child. How sad that someone believes it’s okay (or funny or cool) to impose their own agenda on the holy Birth of Jesus. Pray for those who did so, for their change of heart, and that Jesus will forgive this sacrilege, this attack on the Christian Faith." The post (shown below) received more than 170 reactions, 50 comments and 50 shares in five hours.