PBS, Lesbians, and Children’s TV
It never ends. And now that they’ve scored what they believe to be a victory, the religious right is targeting everyone and everything, to be escorted back to the last century. The latest is children’s television. In particular, a children’s television show that happens to be one of my son’s favorites.
About the only television our son watches is PBS Kids, which we prefer because it’s not heavily commercialized as the other children’s networks tend to be. (There are sponsorship announcements, but they generally come before the program and aren’t so obviously aimed at selling a product to kids.) His favorite show, and the one he watches at bedtime is Arthur. It’s a nice enough show that it even throws in references that adults can enjoy as well as kids. It’s so popular that it now has a spin-off, Postcards from Buster in which the main character records video post cards of his travels with his father (a pilot) to send back to his friends at home. It’s a interesting way for kids to see different parts of the country and different types of people.
Well, in an upcoming episode Postcards from Buster is visiting a lesbian family, and the religious right doesn’t like it. In fact, they’d like to stop it.
WGBH-TV (Channel 2) has pushed back airing an episode of its new ”Arthur” spinoff ”Postcards From Buster” because the episode features a lesbian couple and their three children.
The episode was originally scheduled to air Feb. 2 but is now slated for March 23. WGBH, which produces the children’s show, said it wants to give other PBS member stations around the country a chance to review the contents. Those stations can then decide whether to air it.
WGBH’s decision comes the same week as complaints by some Christian conservative groups that a video about diversity due to be sent to 61,000 US schools in March promotes the acceptance of homosexuality. The video features Barney and a host of cartoon characters including SpongeBob SquarePants.
The episode of ”Postcards From Buster” is not about homosexuality, said Jeanne Hopkins, a spokeswoman for WGBH. Still the station acknowledged that it had heard ”concerns” from other stations recently. Hopkins declined to identify the stations because conversations about programming go on constantly, she said. WGBH said it plans to send the episode to member stations next week.
”PBS wants to make sure we are sensitive to local concerns. We wanted to make sure stations had time to see it,” she said.
…Since it launched last year, ”Postcards From Buster” has profiled several different types of families, including children who live with their grandparents. The show has also focused on children from a variety of religious backgrounds, including Muslims, Mormons, and evangelical Christians.
”The show’s goal is to reflect the lives of American kids,” said Hopkins. ”It’s not meant to be political.”
Needless to say, as a gay dads, we like our son to see other families that look like his, whether they have two mommies or two daddies. We do our best to make sure he does, and we socialize regularly with other gay & lesbian families. It also goes without saying that we’d like him, and other kids, to see this episode of Postcards from Buster because it helps promote understanding and tolerance, two things that are anathema to the religious right, which thrives on fear and intolerance.
We, too, are America.
Even if you don’t have kids, look at it this way. Anything that promotes tolerance and understanding among the young can make things a bit easier for the next generation of gay & lesbian youth to grow up in America’s neighborhoods and schools.
Don’t let them win. Take a moment to contact WGHB and voice your support for this program, urging them not to let radical religious extremists stop them from airing it. You can use the link above, or contact WGHB at :
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WGBH
P.O. Box 200
Boston, MA 02134
617-300-5400
January 25th, 2005 at 2:06 pm
“It also goes without saying that we’d like him, and other kids, to see this episode of Postcards from Buster because it helps promote understanding and tolerance, two things that are anathema to the religious right, which thrives on fear and intolerance.”
Isn’t it the height of irony that PBS–a bastion of liberalism and progressive thought–continually capitulates to the far right? It’s most unfortunate. As you noted, their children’s programming is superb. Families and children end up on the short end of this political grandstanding.
Rod
Brotha2Brotha
January 27th, 2005 at 5:18 pm
It’s so crazy. I don’t even know how this got on their radar screen, it seems especially innocuous. It’s one thing to object to an overtly pro-gay acceptance message, but it’s another to get such a strong reaction by merely acknowledging that our families merely exist, for pete’s sake. It’s not promotion, it’s reflecting the fact that there are millions of us everwhere, in America and all over the world.
As you said, we are part of American too and they are doing the damnest to make sure that we aren’t represented at all.