Alabama Officially Bans Arthur Because They Think It'll Turn All The Kids Gay
Source - Alabama Public Television has refused to show the premiere of the 22nd season of Arthur because it features a gay wedding.
Entitled “Mr Ratburn and the Special Someone,” the episode features the same-sex marriage of Arthur’s third-grade teacher, Mr Ratburn.
The episode first aired on May 13 but was not shown by Alabama Public Television (APT), which chose to show a re-run of an old Arthur episode instead.
“It would be a violation of trust to broadcast the episode,” the director of programming at APT, Mike McKenzie, told NBC News. McKenzie said that in April, PBS alerted APT and other stations about “possible viewer concerns about the content of the program.” After watching the episode, McKenzie and others at APT made the decision not to broadcast it.
First of all, this is exactly how I imagine the decision makers for Alabama Public Television look and sound:
Like a bunch of demented Ashley Schaeffer’s from East Bound and Down living in the past on a plantation house in the middle of nowhere. I also understand that that’s giving them too much credit. That these are people who by all accounts have such little understanding of how the human brain, sexuality, and life in general work they actually believe the nonsense that comes out of their mouths. That a cartoon rat getting married to another cartoon rat will actually turn the kids gay.
Here’s what the director of Alabama Public Television, Mike McKenzie had to say…
“Parents have trusted Alabama Public Television for more than 50 years to provide children’s programs that entertain, educate and inspire.
“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.”
…and here’s his face in case you needed something to ruin your Tuesday:
What a dick. I hope his kids turn out to be gay. I’m not saying that as an insult or a dig, I’m saying that because that’s the only way people like him learn to accept the people they don’t understand. It has to hit close enough to home to make an impact. So that when someone says or does something fucked up, they feel it. It happened to Dick Cheney when his younger daughter Mary decided to marry her longtime partner, Heather Poe. He went from being anti-gay marriage to pro-gay marriage because he couldn’t fathom how anyone would hold his daughter’s relationship against her.
Anyway, the fact that this all stems from a fictional cartoon rat wedding is laugh out loud funny. Best of luck to the youth of Alabama. As long as these people are around, they’re going to need it.