PBS has decided not to distribute the "Sugartown!" episode of the children's animated series Postcards from Buster because it features a family with two female parents. Individual affiliate stations can decide for themselves whether or not to run the episode. You can find your local PBS station here; for me, it's Oregon Public Broadcasting. They do run Postcards from Buster, but it appears they won't be running "Sugartown!". My letter:

Dear OPB,

I am writing to ask you to air the "Sugartown!" episode of "Postcards from Buster", over which Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings has created an absurd controversy. (I searched both the OPB site and the TV schedule and could not find evidence that you plan to run that episode.)

I am a PBS subscriber for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that I believe I can rely on PBS to promote diversity and tolerance, and to be a voice for minority groups. This is particularly important in children's programs. A hateful but vocal minority in this country would like to see broadcast media reflexively self-censoring all mention of gay issues. Please do not let that happen. Please continue to send, particularly to our children, a message of inclusion and tolerance. Please air "Sugartown!".

Sincerely, etc.

Margaret Spellings is BushCo's brand-new Secretary of Education. According to the LA Times, last Tuesday she wrote to PBS asking them to consider removing her department's logo and returning public money spent on "Sugartown!". Hatefilled nutjob and self-confessed dachsund abuser James Dobson thinks that's just peachy, and his Focus Obsessively and Exclusively on the Straight, White, Evangelical Christian Family Foundation has provided a handy web form for use in patting Ms Spellings on the back. It shouldn't surprise anyone that I put it to better use:

Dear Ms Spellings,

I write to protest your recent complaints over the "Sugartown!" episode of the PBS children's program "Postcards from Buster". The positive portrayal of gay characters is in no way at odds with the educational goals that inform the public funding of such programming. According to the 2000 Census, same-sex couples make up about 1% of all US couples, and over 400,000 children live with same-sex parents. Gays and lesbians are a significant thread in the rich tapestry of American society, and the Education Dept should strongly support children's programming which reflects that fact.

You wrote that "many parents would not want their young children exposed to the lifestyles portrayed in this episode", and that is certainly true. Those parents are (perhaps unwittingly) harming their children, who will only suffer by taking on a regressive and intolerant outlook. It is not the job of the Education Dept to reinforce the preferences (or prejudices) of any particular group of parents. Rather, the nation relies on you to ensure that programs like "Sugartown!" are available to parents who want their children to value diversity and tolerance.

Sincerely, etc.

So, where did I hear about all this? SpeakSpeak, a website (and a 501(c)?) for those of us who are fed up with the lunatic fringe dominating public discourse:

SpeakSpeak will campaign for those of us who feel we’ve been unfairly written off as Popular Opinion’s pipsqueak kid brother. We know we’re not a minority fringe. We know we’re not bereft of morals or family values. We know that if the country were headed for damnation because of Janet Jackson’s boob, the scenery would probably be much more interesting.

And we know we have to work harder.

We must stop whining about the election. We must learn lessons from it. The winners won because they were organized. They mobilized. They did a very, very good job.

And on that note, welcome to SpeakSpeak’s inaugural campaign issue: "indecency," "obscenity," and who gets to define it.

SpeakSpeak’s first campaign comes in response to the chokehold the Parents Television Council (http://www.parentstv.com) has on the FCC. This has been a banner year for obscenity fines—$2 million so far, more than SIX TIMES the combined totals of 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003. By its own account (which it is today denying—see speakspeak.org/news.html for more), the PTC is responsible for the increase.

The FCC is not a policing agency. It does not monitor the television—it responds to citizens who watch the television. The FCC is required to keep "obscenity" off the airwaves, but it has been given a very vague definition of the term—one that involves the "average person" applying "contemporary community standards." Yet they’re only hearing from a very specific community, one that doesn’t represent most of the country.

And this is where we come in.

SpeakSpeak is still getting off the ground, and seems to be largely a labour of love for founder Amanda Toering, but there's a blog and you can sign up for email alerts (both of which, as you can see, I find useful). If you too are sick of the soi-disant Moral Majority, please consider joining SpeakSpeak and myself as we take arms against a sea of assholes.