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An Alabama Church Is Hosting an Arthur Wedding Party and Screening

An Alabama Church Is Hosting an 'Arthur' Wedding Party and Screening

An Alabama Church Is Hosting an 'Arthur' Wedding Party and Screening

The event is in response to Alabama Public Television's refusal to air the episode.

rachelkiley

The world doesn’t seem to be done talking about gay rat weddings, so neither are we.

And this time, we’ve got some good news.

It was previously reported that Alabama Public Television (APT) is refusing to air the episode of Arthur in which Mr. Ratburn, the animal-kids’ teacher, marries his boyfriend, who is presumably an aardvark even though we are all consistently referring to their union as a gay rat wedding.

That hasn’t changed, but one Alabama church is stepping up to do what they can.

First United Methodist Church in Birmingham is holding not only a screening of the episode, but an actual wedding party for the two cartoon husbands on June 15th.

“There will be wedding cake, sparkling apple juice and surprises. This all ages screening and celebration is free and open to all,” reads the Facebook event. It also says that the event will include two “surprise” cartoon episodes and is co-hosted by the Sidewalk Film Festival and the SHOUT LGBTQ Film Festival.

“We wanted to help allow for anyone in the Birmingham area who wants to see the episode to have the opportunity to do so,” the creative director of the festivals, Rachel Morgan, told Newsweek. “We hope that the screening reflects the fact that there are many people in Alabama who disagree with censorship and believe that all lives are worthy of representation.”

APT refused to air the episode based on the idea that parents trust APT — which apparently means they trust them not to be inclusive or show children that LGBTQ people are just as valid and happy as anyone else.

“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,” the director of programming, Mike Mckenzie, said.

While the decision is unfortunate, it has led to folks in Alabama speaking out against the censorship and, as is the case with First United Methodist, finding ways for kids to watch the important episode all the same.

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Rachel Kiley

Rachel Kiley is presumably a writer and definitely not a terminator. She can usually be found crying over queerbaiting in the Pitch Perfect franchise or on Twitter, if not both.

Rachel Kiley is presumably a writer and definitely not a terminator. She can usually be found crying over queerbaiting in the Pitch Perfect franchise or on Twitter, if not both.