Who knew kissing could be so controversial? After 19 Kids and Counting star Jessa Duggar shared an Instagram photo of herself locking lips with husband Ben Seewald, she apparently got some criticism from people who thought her PDA was inappropriate. In response, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar took their own kissing pic, which they then posted to the family's "official" Facebook page along with a call to action.
"God designed marriage to be a loving, dynamic relationship between a husband and wife for a lifetime," the accompanying caption read. "God loves marriage and it is supposed to be full of love, joy, fun, and romance. Marriage is where romance belongs!"
It continued: "Recently, Ben & Jessa received some criticism for posting a kissing picture. We are so grateful they waited to share their first kiss until after marriage. We've been married 30 years and are still in love! We had fun trying to duplicate Ben and Jessa's happily married kissing picture. We challenge all married couples to take a happily married picture and post it here."
Fans quickly responded to the challenge with photos of themselves and their spouses smooching for the camera. According to John Becker, however, some of those photos were deleted — because they featured same-sex couples.
Becker, who runs the LGBTQ blog The Bilerico Project, wrote on Tuesday, Nov. 11, that the picture he posted of himself and his husband was deleted from the comments section, along with other shots of same-sex twosomes.
"Oh no, I think I've been banned from the Duggar Family Official Facebook page! (I'm crying into my coffee cup right now, I assure you)," he shared on his own Facebook page, and on The Bilerico Project. "I posted this photo of Michael and me with the following comment: 'Happily married for nearly nine years; working hard for #MarriageEquality for all loving couples."
He continued: "It was getting lots of likes, but the Duggars must not have liked it very much — they pulled it down and blocked me from posting, liking, or commenting on the page altogether. How sad that they feel so threatened by other loving marriages."
The Duggars have yet to comment on the controversy via Facebook or their other social media accounts.
