LOS ANGELES – You knew it was coming. We’re sure you didn’t even need a Divination Witch.
Last Wednesday, on December 11, 2024, The Wild Hunt received word of an impending boycott, imploring us to tell the community about the “truth” behind the recently released blockbuster, Wicked. The message was accompanied by the usual fake email address, a litany of Bible verses, and the well-worn declaration that “Jesus is on his way.” By the way, it might take Jesus up to “nine years” to show up, and as long as we’re informing the community about this, those chips on your credit card are supposedly “the mark of the beast.”
Wicked theatrical release poster
But there is indeed a petition. The conservative organization One Million Moms has launched a campaign targeting Wicked, citing concerns over its inclusion of “witchcraft” and LGBTQ+ themes. In a blog post, the group urged parents to “avoid taking their children to see Wicked” and criticized what it described as Universal Pictures’ efforts to “desensitize and normalize the LGBTQ lifestyle.”
One Million Moms are well-known for their campaigns to boycott and protest media they deem harmful to young audiences, targeting companies such as Marvel and DC Comics, advertisements from Burger King, and the film Toy Story 4.
“Of course, the musical contains a tremendous amount of witchcraft and sorcery, and that content prompts most parents to avoid taking their children to see Wicked,” the petition states. “But the film also shows not-so-discreet crossdressing and men crushing on men, which parents may not expect.”
What’s equally shocking, according to the petition, is that “Four of the film’s main characters are openly queer or gay in real life, or at a minimum, these actors have spoken about their queer experiences.” One Million Moms calls it a fight “against indecency in the media,” according to its website.
Actress Kristin Chenoweth, who originated the role of Glinda in the Broadway musical Wicked in 2003, responded to One Million Moms’ petition with a pointed comment on Instagram. She wrote, “Everyone knows the ‘One Million Moms’ are really just a few hundred. Maybe. It’s called entertainment. Artistry. I am a Christian woman who originated the role of Glinda, and all the silliness these women spew out of hate—no, no, no. I can’t help it: I try to love them anyway, for they don’t get it. For anyone who wants to see girl power, go see Wicked. Onstage or in a movie theater.”
But there’s more behind the One Million Moms curtain.
One Million Moms was created by the conservative American Family Association (AFA), which was founded in 1977 and is classified as a known hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The AFA strongly opposes LGBTQ+ rights, including same-sex marriage and non-discrimination protections. It advocates for policies that align with conservative Christian beliefs about gender and sexuality.
The AFA has also been very clear about where it stands on modern Paganism. In a pair of articles published in late October 2024, written by Linda Harvey, author of the 2008 book Not My Child: Contemporary Paganism and the New Spirituality, the AFA stated, “So the faith that for several thousand years of history dared not speak its name in the Western world, does so boldly now… Essentially, it’s paganism.”
“But wait! What if a ‘nice’ version of paganism and witchcraft was available, one that fits with our world’s apparent enlightenment and progress? It’s not ‘black’ magic, but ‘white’ witchcraft. It’s Glinda the Good Witch, not the Wicked Witch of the West. Surely, this couldn’t be harmful, and those who decry it are uninformed alarmists. Right?” Harvey asks in the second of the articles published on the AFA website.
Unsurprisingly, Harvey concludes that “as America becomes increasingly paganized and stripped of Christian underpinnings, the essence of what can make one content is changing also. Without the taming and softening effect of the Gospel, humans descend into mindless self-indulgence, even savagery. The teens of Columbine, Jonesboro, Paducah, Sandy Hook, and Parkland weren’t desperate inner-city street kids, but middle-class students from small towns or suburbs. What would make comfortable American kids murder fellow classmates?”
Harvey’s discourse is then continued on Mission America, a separate but collaborative organization she founded, which shares rhetoric, overlapping goals, and Christian conservative ideology and dominionist beliefs. “Today, wherever you find pagan beliefs, you will find kids being sexualized early, and wherever you find kids being sexualized early, you will likely find paganism,” she writes.
The One Million Moms petition echoes that language: “As moms, we all want to know when Universal is attempting to desensitize our children by normalizing the LGBTQ lifestyle.”
At the time of publication, about 13,000 Wicked-disapproving moms were clutching their pearls. That accounts for about 1.3% of the conservative group’s self-claimed membership.
The petition’s author writes, “My family and I will not watch this film. Universal has left conservative and Christian families with no choice but to avoid Wicked since it goes against our beliefs and values. My family will not support Universal Pictures; you have lost our trust.”
As the boycott presses on, Wicked has been defying gravity, grossing $112.5 million in domestic box office revenue and closing in on $400 million worldwide, overtaking the previous all-time record-holder, Grease, as the highest-grossing Broadway musical adaptation.
Wicked Part II is scheduled for release on November 21, 2025.
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