Are the Duggars and Bates still friends? Despite having a lot in common — they both are Christian families with a lot of children and they both also star on their own reality TV shows — the Duggars and Bates also have their differences. One glaring difference is that the Duggar family has way more controversies under their belt than the Bates family does, and it's understandable why the wholesome Bringing Up Bates stars might want to distance themselves from the Counting On stars.

Despite evidence that the Bates' might not be as interested in carrying on a friendship, Anna Duggar and Lawson Bates proved that they're still close on May 30. Lawson took to Twitter to share two adorable photos holding Anna and Josh's baby son Mason, and Anna quickly responded saying, "Great to have you in town! Mason enjoyed getting to hang out with you :)." The exchange proved that despite the indiscretions of Josh Duggar or their brother-in-law Derick Dillard, at least some of the Bates' still value their friendship.

Fans started to suspect that there was tension between the Bates and the Duggars after Duggar in-law Derick — who is married to Jill Duggar — went on a transphobic rant against his former TLC co-star Jazz Jennings. Jazz is a transgender activist starring on her own show, I Am Jazz, and Derick attacked the teenager in a series of tweets. The network swiftly responded to Derick's hateful tweets by announcing that he was fired from Counting On and he would no longer be filming for the series.

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Fly-in dinner at Byrd's Adventure Center! Great food with great people! Thanks for taking us, John!

A post shared by Josiah and Lauren Duggar (@siduggar) on

It's unclear how long it took the Bates family to unfollow Derick, but back in March, an eagle-eyed reddit user realized that their individual accounts had dropped off of Derick's follow list, along with his sister-in-law Jessa Duggar's husband Ben Seewald.

But it seems like the Bates fam might have just been trying to distance themselves from Derick and not the entire Duggar fam. besides hanging out with Anna, on March 19, Josiah Duggar took to Instagram to share a series of group photos from a hang sesh with his fiancée Lauren Swanson, his brother Joe Duggar and his wife Kendra Caldwell, his brother John David Duggar, and their pal Nathan Bates. Members of the Duggar family were also invited to Tori Bates' wedding in December, so it seems like things are still good between the Bates and the Duggars — except Derick, of course.

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