Arthur’s Mr. Ratburn Is Gay and He Just Got Married

Across America, children came home from school, turned on PBS, and saw a gay rat get married on Monday. This is the future that liberals want!

In a brand new episode of the children’s television show Arthur titled “Mr. Ratburn & the Special Someone,” the kids find out that their teacher Mr. Ratburn is getting married. At first, they mistake Mr. Ratburn’s bossy sister Patty, voiced by Jane Lynch — gay rights! — as his fiancé. But, at the wedding day, Arthur, Buster, Francine, Muffy, and Binky attend the event to find out that Mr. Ratburn is marrying a man — or, like, a male animal. From the looks of him, he is an aardvark like the show’s titular hero.

Out has contacted PBS for comment about this episode and will update when we hear back. You can watch the full Arthur episode here.

Very few animated shows aimed at children embrace queer themes and content, even when they’re as tepid as Arthur’s. (For the record, the episode never says out loud that Mr. Ratburn’s husband is a guy. He is just styled like the other men on the show and winks at the kids. They never acknowledge it is a gay wedding.) In 2005, PBS was forced to pull an episode of the Arthur spinoff Postcards from Buster in which Buster visited a family with lesbian mothers. Before it was to air, former education secretary under George W. Bush Margaret Spellings asked PBS to pull the episode for fear that children might be exposed to — gasp! — lesbians.

Arthur creator Marc Brown said he was “disappointed” by PBS’s decision to comply with Spellings’ request.

“What we are trying to do in the series is connect kids with other kids by reflecting their lives,” Brown said. “In some episodes, as in the Vermont one, we are validating children who are seldom validated. We believe that 'Postcards From Buster' does this in a very natural way —and, as always, from the point of view of children."

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