Republican Tries to Defund PBS Over 'Arthur' Same-Sex Wedding

Because nothing threatens Republicans quite like a gay rat wedding, a Colorado politician is now proposing a bill to cut all federal funding to PBS.

Rep. Doug Lamborn introduced the bill Monday, in response to the children’s PBS show Arthur airing an episode featuring cartoon teacher Mr. Ratburn marrying his cartoon aardvark boyfriend.

“Taxpayers now know with complete certainty that the goal of the PBS cartoon is to impart social liberalism to children,” Lamborn claimed in a written statement that opened by noting President Obama once called for respect and tolerance between people holding different viewpoints.

Apparently, Lamborn believes that people who are against same-sex marriage are the ones failing to receive respect and tolerance in this scenario, despite his campaign to defund an entire institution based on a cartoon showing one family-friendly scene of something perfectly legal and protected between two consenting adults.

“To add insult to injury, public media programming is becoming more antagonistic toward conservative and religious viewpoints,” he said. “Parents and churches should be the ones discussing marriage and family with their children — not PBS.”

“To target children in this way is a complete affront to religious Americans.”

Lamborn says he has the backing of noted homophobe Franklin Graham, as well as several ultra-Christian, anti-LGBTQ groups.

The federal government provides around $445 million per year to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which then divides those funds between TV and radio (such as NPR). Lamborn’s bill would not only defund PBS, but any group that receives federal money through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Losing federal funding could be a big blow to the educational programming provided by these companies, much of which is aimed at children. But, of course, we have to do anything we can to keep our kids safe from gay rats.