Alabama Public Television has refused to air a recent episode of a children’s program that featured a same-sex wedding.

An episode of the popular animated series Arthur, titled Mr Ratburn and the Special Someone, was deemed inappropriate for the state’s young viewers by Mike McKenzie, the director of programming for the station, saying broadcasting it would be a “violation of trust”.

The series, which has aired since 1996, follows the adventures of the titular eight-year-old aardvark. In the episode in question, he and his classmates overhear their teacher Mr Ratburn, who is a rat, discussing plans for a wedding with a woman, who they assume is his bride-to-be. At the end of the episode it’s revealed that the woman is his sister and that he is actually marrying Patrick, an aardvark. The children, in attendance at the wedding with their parents, delight at the surprise.

While many around the country were heartened by the LGBT inclusion, same-sex expressions of love between cartoon animals are not appropriate for young viewers, according to McKenzie.

“Parents have trusted Alabama Public Television for more than 50 years to provide children’s programs that entertain, educate and inspire,” McKenzie said in a statement. “More importantly – although we strongly encourage parents to watch television with their children and talk about what they have learned afterwards – parents trust that their children can watch APT without their supervision. We also know that children who are younger than the ‘target’ audience for Arthur also watch the program.”

In 2005, a spinoff of Arthur called Postcards From Buster featured a character with two mothers, which was also deemed controversial by many, including the then secretary of education, Margaret Spellings, who said many parents “would not want their young children exposed to the lifestyles portrayed in this episode”.

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After congratulating the fictional rat for his wedding, Glaad sharply criticized the Alabama station’s decision, writing on Twitter: “This is homophobia, plain and simple.”

Same-sex marriage has been legal in Alabama since 2015, although a number of counties subsequently refused to issue such licenses, a controversy which has become yet another battleground in the state this year.