Culture Crusade
So the last post pointed to a satirical article (for those of you not familiar with The Onion), but this is the real deal--seems the subversive PBS is trying to convert our nation's children to homosexuality; from today's Studio Briefing at IMDB:

New Education Secretary Blasts PBS Kids Show
Education Secretary Margaret Spellings has lashed out at PBS for using funds from the federal Ready-To-Learn program to produce an episode of a cartoon series featuring lesbian characters. "Sugartime!," an episode of the series Postcards from Buster, shows the title character, a bunny, traveling in Vermont and learning about how maple sugar is made. During his travels, he encounters two lesbian couples. (Vermont recognizes same-sex civil unions.) In a letter to PBS chief Pat Mitchell, Spellings wrote: "Many parents would not want their young children exposed to the lifestyles portrayed in the episode. ... Congress' and the Department's purpose in funding this programming certainly was not to introduce this kind of subject matter to children, particularly through the powerful and intimate medium of television." She demanded that PBS refund the money spent on the episode. The show's producer, WGBH in Boston, pointed out that the show's grant specifies that "diversity will be incorporated into the fabric of the series to help children understand and respect differences" and that it has dealt with children who live in fundamentalist Christian and Muslim families as well as children who have only one parent and those who live with grandparents. PBS said later that it had decided not to distribute the episode but it denied that the letter from the education secretary was a factor in its decision. Gay organizations expressed outrage. In a statement, Winnie Stachelberg of the Human Rights Campaign said, "The secretary's first act in office denies children an education about the diversity of American families. ... Secretary Spellings is sending the message that differences should be concealed. This creates a dangerous environment for children's growth."

And here's an article in the Boston Globe about the family that was featured in the episode:

Karen Pike agreed to be a part of a children's show about families, and now she feels she's under attack.
[...]
''It makes me sick," said Pike, a 42-year-old photographer in Hinesburg, Vt., who united with Pieper in a civil union in 2001. ''I'm actually aghast at the hatred stemming from such an important person in our government. . . . Her first official act was to denounce my family, and to denounce PBS for putting on a program that shows my family as loving, moral, and committed."

The decision by PBS caused a ripple across the nation yesterday. Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic National Committee chairman, charged in a statement that the secretary is ''confined to a very narrow and selfish agenda if her first action in office is to threaten an American institution like PBS. While America's schools are crumbling and our students are falling behind in basic skills, Republicans in Washington are too busy pursuing an intolerant agenda to try to solve the real problems."