Ugh. In lieu of pushing the anti-marriage constitutional amendment (a certain loser in the Senate), the Bush administration is pandering to its homophobe base with micro-initiatives, like this (hat tip to Josh Marshall):
This week, the new US secretary of education, Margaret Spellings,denounced PBS for spending public funds to tape an episode of achildren’s program that features [Karen] Pike, a lesbian, her partner, GillianPieper, and their 11-year-old daughter, Emma. The installment of”Postcards From Buster," which is produced locally at WGBH-TV (Channel2) and which had been scheduled to air March 23, was promptly droppedby PBS, which is refusing to distribute the footage to its 349 memberstations.
You know what? Let’s have this discussion. Let’s rise to the bait: Gay people are real. Their relationships are real. Their love is real. They have real families. It’s not shocking to show that to kids, and I’ll bet it didn’t even occur to the WGBH folks that it was a big deal. It’s not. (Maybe we should be grateful to Mrs. Spellings for the opportunity to talk about this in a post-election context.)
These people are bullying our friends, neighbors, and relatives. There’s decent pushback from Terry McAuliffe in the article — who else will stand up?
Here’s a great nugget — the northeastern chauvinist in me can’t resist:
At least one member station said that it would not air the episode,even though WGBH will make it available. Jeanette Thornbrue, a managerin the programming department at OETA-TV (Channel 11) in Oklahoma City,said her station will download whatever is on the PBS satellite feedthat day instead.
”Oklahoma is very conservative," she said. ”We’ve had off-the-wallphone calls when nothing was happening." She added that one viewercomplained about an episode of ”Teletubbies" in which the characterswere dancing. ”They thought that was too much," she said.
And they think we’re weird.
Not to point out any facts or anything, but according to what I’ve read, the Department of Education paid for programs to improve academic achievement in children. Now, if that’s the truth, then to me it seems they have every right to pull funding when the product that was delivered didn’t meet the requirements for funding.
Okay, so the requirements for funding were “NO DAMNED QUEERS, PLEASE?”If the show was about different kinds of families, then a same-sex couple is a perfectly legitimate topic to broach. I’m sick of people claiming to stand for family values on one hand and actively trying to break-up real families on the other.
Joseph,Thanks for writing, and for pointing out the “facts”. Very helpful indeed. I have a question for you:Was there a requirement that gay families be actively excluded from programming? Does that preclude the show from fulfilling its mission?I’m interested to hear your answer.
For BusterSilly wabbit =:] tricks must be all the str8swant to perpetuate about the queers, who to you were all ears, since we understandthe VT families volunteeredand now must worry and fear, since the tiny minds could not be truly like their christand act nice, show that our familiescan be sugar and spice allthe while they happily view shows that send their likes to islands of vice.where marriage is a game meantto tempt each other out ofholy matrimony and goad each on to win big bux by lying to a spouse whiledenying the fags & dykes a real civil Right where the only wish is to declare loveand have an opportunity to visit, support and hold each other in plain sightPower the bunny – Thank you Buster.SpadloBe a real lezzie:Buck Fush
Greatest. Comment. Ever.Spadlo, if we had a t-shirt, I’d send you a box of ’em. Thanks for making my night.Peace out.