Have you ever heard of the Benham brothers? I had not. The twins are professional house-flippers. The cable channel HGTV signed them up for a show to debut in the fall. Here’s what it was about, according to the network:

“After a decade of flipping houses for profit, brothers David Benham and Jason Benham now help families buy the homes they never thought they could afford. In each episode, the guys help a deserving family find a fixer-upper and transform it into their forever home — with a healthy dose of sibling rivalry between the brothers along the way.”

But when a liberal activist group this week revealed that the brothers are the sons of a controversial Evangelical pro-life activist, and that one of them has participated in public rallies against gay marriage, it axed the show. Today, the brothers responded publicly:

The first and last thought on our minds as we begin and end each day is; have we shined Christ’s light today? Our faith is the fundamental calling in our lives, and the centerpiece of who we are. As Christians we are called to love our fellow man. Anyone who suggests that we hate homosexuals or people of other faiths is either misinformed or lying.

Over the last decade, we’ve sold thousands of homes with the guiding principle of producing value and breathing life into each family that has crossed our path, and we do not, nor will we ever discriminate against people who do not share our views.

We were saddened to hear HGTV’s decision. With all of the grotesque things that can be seen and heard on television today you would think there would be room for two twin brothers who are faithful to our families, committed to biblical principles, and dedicated professionals. If our faith costs us a television show then so be it.

Good men. Still, as the LATimes reports, HGTV is a very gay-friendly network in its programming, so the brothers were an odd choice. But the LAT says, “It is unclear how the brothers’ personal beliefs would have influenced their series, if at all.” As a pure business decision, I can see how the protest the brothers would have brought to the network would have stood to damage the overall business far more than A&E re: Duck Dynasty. Even so, the fact remains that these guys were denied a business opportunity that had nothing at all to do with their religion or cultural politics, because of their religion and cultural politics.

Again, to be fair, given HGTV’s brand profile and likely audience demographics, it’s hard to expect that the cable network would have done any different in this environment. Were this 25 years ago, a family-oriented cable network probably would have cancelled a planned program if it were revealed that one of its stars was gay and had engaged in ACT-UP protests — even if the program would have had nothing at all to do with homosexuality or cultural politics. Is this really the kind of popular culture we want to have? I know, I know, there are worse problems in the world than twin brothers losing a reality show. But in a world where polymorphous perversity of all kinds is not only no barrier to pop-culture opportunities, but positively marketable (e.g., the teen mom and porn star Farrah Abraham’s starring role in VH1’s Couples Therapy), it says something that the kind of “perverse” people intolerable on cable TV are Christian activists who oppose gay marriage — even if that has nothing to do with the programming!

Commenting on the situation, David Benham said:

“We were told by someone close to us, in a high place, ‘You and your brother at this point have an image problem’ — and we need to rebuild our image,” David Benham told Deadline. “A smear campaign was run, and Jason and I are not going to try and correct a smear campaign.” He said he and his brother will “be a voice for truth and help those people that are intimidated by these folks, if that rebrands our image, so be it – but that’s not our goal.”

I have never heard of the Benhams before this, and for all I know, disagree with them on any number of things. But I know what’s happened to them is going to keep happening, and happening, and happening. The Right has, in a way, brought it upon ourselves, with high-profile conservative leaders doing things like keeping the Pro-Life Alliance Of Gays & Lesbians from participating in the annual March For Life, and for doing things like successfully agitating for the Romney 2012 campaign to get rid of gay foreign policy adviser Richard Grenell (for the record, I denounced at the time the way Grenell was treated). Who cares if Richard Grenell is gay? He was advising on foreign policy. Who cares if the Benham brothers are anti-gay? They were to host a TV show about getting poor people into nicer housing.

I suppose the poor families who couldn’t have otherwise afforded homes will not get them now that the Benhams are not going to be on the air. Sucks to be them in this day and age.