Duggar Family Member Shows Support For LGBTQ Community With Pride Month Tweet
The “rebel” of the Duggar family is letting the LGTBQ community know that she’s on their side. It’s not secret that Amy Duggar, the niece of former 19 Kids and Counting stars Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, doesn’t see eye-to-eye with her famous family members when it comes to many of their beliefs, but she still occasionally expresses a viewpoint that takes Duggar fans by surprise.
On Friday, Amy Duggar, 31, took to Twitter to acknowledge Pride Month. Instead of criticizing the LGTBQ community like some of her family members have done in the past, she decided to share a message of love and acceptance. However, she was also honest about her personal feelings about LGBTQ men and women, admitting that she struggles to relate to them.
“Our kindness should extend beyond who or what we are comfortable with. My goal is to show God’s love to everyone!” Amy wrote.
“This is my pride month tweet. Lets extend love even if we don’t understand. Stop judging and don’t ridicule. If you ask me kindness has no boundaries.”
Amy Duggar is the first member of her family to celebrate Pride Month with an LGBTQ-positive message, and her words received a warm response from her Twitter followers.
“Amy thank You! I so appreciate this tweet,” remarked one fan. “I have a beautiful transgender daughter. I am a Christian. Seeing this tweet…made my day.”
This isn’t the first time Amy has pleasantly surprised those who are critical of the Duggar family’s extreme fundamentalist Christian views. As reported by the Daily Mail, she has shocked fans by admitting that she wasn’t a virgin on her wedding night, even though her aunt, uncle, and cousins constantly preach against premarital sex. She also sports skin-baring bikinis and short shorts, garments that even her pants-loving cousins Jinger and Jill won’t dare wear.
Set your DVR for tomm night! TLC 10/9c pic.twitter.com/koS66qEjFo
— Amy Rachelle King (@amyduggar) June 19, 2017
National Buffalo River Country ? pic.twitter.com/FGlnpL7Ugz
— Amy Rachelle King (@amyduggar) July 21, 2016
Amy’s recent words about the LGBTQ community are a stark contrast to those of another Duggar family member. After Jill Duggar and her husband, Derick Dillard, quit appearing on the TLC reality series Counting On, Derick began to repeatedly criticize LGTBQ stars of other TLC shows. As reported by People, he called the married stars of Nate & Jeremiah by Design and their children a “travesty of family.” He also complained that Nate Berkus’s and Jeremiah Brent’s home renovation show “celebrates a lifestyle so degrading to children on public television as if it should be normal.”
These attacks came after Derick was accused of cyber-bullying the teenage star of I Am Jazz on Twitter. He repeatedly misgendered Jazz Jennings, an underage transgender girl, and he wrote that her show follows “a non-reality” because “transgender is a myth.”
Other members of the Duggar family who have been criticized for their comments about the LGTBQ community include Michelle Duggar, who has equated transgender women to child molesters, and her scandal-plagued oldest son, Josh Duggar. As reported by Buzzfeed, Josh often spoke out against gay marriage when he worked for the Family Research Council.
It’s safe to say that Amy Duggar’s aunt, uncle, and cousins will not be celebrating Pride Month with her, but she isn’t the only member of the family who is supportive of the LGBTQ community. John Andrew Studdard, a second cousin of the Duggar children, is an LGBTQ activist who has slammed Derick for his “homophobic cries for publicity.”
“I believe love is everywhere,” Studdard told Radar Online last month. “Everyone should just be happy!”