Netflix posts blasphemous 'gay Jesus' Christmas film; Christians worldwide push petition demanding its removal

Netflix is facing backlash for streaming a Brazilian parody film that portrays Jesus Christ as a homosexual, with more than 1 million signing a petition for its removal.

As of Friday afternoon, 1.4 million people had signed the Change.org petition for Netflix to remove "A Primeira Tentação de Cristo," or "The First Temptation of Christ," the petition suggesting the movie has "seriously offended Christians."

What are the details?

A brief description for the film on Netflix's website says: "Jesus, who's hitting the big 3-0 brings a surprise guest to meet the family. A Christmas special so wrong, it must be from comedians Porta dos Fundos."

The trailer, shown on Netflix with captions in English, shows characters representing Jesus and his supposed gay lover coming home late at night only to find family and friends have gathered for a surprise party. The character representing Jesus attempts to push his companion back outside through the door to conceal his secret.

According to the LGBT site Pink News, Porta dos Fundos, which literally means "back door," is a five-person comedy group from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, who began by making sketches and parodies on their YouTube channel.

It is not the first time the comedy group has made a blasphemous film about Christianity. Last year, Porta dos Fundos released a film — which was also featured on Netflix — called "The Last Hangover," which spoofed "The Hangover."

The film portrayed Jesus' disciples waking up to a missing Jesus and scrambling to piece together the events from the Last Supper the night before. That film won an international Emmy for best comedy.

The film has been hotly criticized

The film has been received with sharp criticism in Brazil, whose population consists of 90 percent professing Christians.

"It is a serious offense against Jesus Christ and the Christians! It has no historical evidence to support the insinuations presented," one petitioner said, according to Pink News.

"A movie that came to destroy the image of Christ who gave His life to save us. Netflix has featured series that the family can't join to watch. God created man and woman and no one can change that," another petitioner said.

Brazilian actor Carlos Vereza took to Facebook to call the film "trash-porn" and the filmmakers "pretentious idiots" who are bent on the "deconstruction of family and religion."

How did the filmmarkers respond?

The filmmakers responded to the petition calling the criticism "tragic" and "sad," according to Yahoo News.

"Porta dos Fundos values artistic freedom and humor through satire on the most diverse cultural themes of our society and believes that freedom of expression is an essential construction for a democratic country," the group said in a statement.

The film was released on Netflix on Dec. 3 and is available to U.S. Netflix subscribers.