What’s the big deal when a politician sends out a Christmas card with a picture of himself, his spouse and the family dog?

That is what Canadian MP Scott Brison did, except his spouse is Maxime St. Pierre. When Canada legalized gay marriage two years ago, the couple married but this is the first Christmas card with their picture on it.

At the time, Brison made history as the first federal politician in Canada to have a same-sex marriage.

The card was sent to 5,000 friends and constituents. Brison referred to the card scene as a “Canadian Gothic.”

After running stories on the card, websites encountered virulent comments from people who found the card offensive. Some referred to the couple as the “Brokeback Brisons.”

Many websites for prominent news organizations, such as the Globe and Mail, found the comments so crude that they disabled the comment section.

Brison referred to it as just a “handful of bigots.”

“It’s their problem, it’s not my problem,” Brison said.

Brison said that he is warmly greeted wherever he goes. “I guess the people who would post homophobic comments on a blog would not have the courage to do so directly to me.”

Brison also expressed longing for the day when this would not be seen as a big deal.