Buster the Bunny returns

DURHAM - Cartoon character Buster Baxter has won another battle in support of promoting diversity.

New Hampshire Public Television has decided to air the controversia* Sugartime" episode of the children’s program "Postcards from Buster."

NHPTV will show the episode on March 22 at 10 p.m., a time when the show’s regular audience will likely be asleep.

"NH Outlook" host Beth Carroll will introduce the episode, which will air unedited. A spokesperson for NHPTV said the time slot was chosen to give parents the opportunity to record the program, preview it and decide if they want their children to see it.

Normally, "Postcards from Buster" is shown on NHPTV at 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. Following the episode, "NH Outlook" will air a discussion of the show, touching on such topics as First Amendment rights and parental discretion.

In "Postcards from Buster," the young bunny travels around the country with his dad, an airline pilot. Through the magic of television, Buster is able to interact with real people. In previous episodes Buster visited a Mormon family, Muslim children and children being raised by their grandparents. N.H. Public Television's broadcast of Buster Baxter's "Sugartime" episode will be followed by an "NH Outlook" discussion program.

The "Sugartime" episode takes place in Vermont, where Buster visits children who have two mothers, to learn about making maple syrup. While it is never stated, the inclusion of a lesbian-headed family has raised the hackles of many conservative groups.

U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings said the lifestyle is not one children should be exposed to. She also objected to the use of public funds to promote the alternative lifestyle.

WGBH in Boston, Channel 2, has decided to air "Sugartime" at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 23, its regular time slot.

WGBH, which produces the show, has supplied a special feed to other affiliates who wanted it.

The Maine Public Broadcasting Network is still considering whether to air the episode.

Spokeswoman Deborah Johnson said Thursday that MPBN’s Community Advisory Board will discuss the episode at a meeting on April 9. The board is made up of 20 representatives from around the state of Maine, she added.

Take a look at another favorite of the children.

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Mar 10, 2005 4:02 pm US/Eastern
(1010 WINS) (NEW YORK) A children's music video that conservatives charge is part of an effort to encourage acceptance of homosexuality is being distributed to more than 60,000 schools nationwide this week, producers said Thursday.

The video features about 100 children's TV characters including SpongeBob SquarePants, Miss Piggy and Oscar the Grouch singing the disco hit "We are Family." It will be accompanied by a teaching guide that promotes tolerance of diversity.

"The opportunity to bring that message to children around the entire country is truly exciting," said Caryl Stern, senior associate national director of the Anti-Defamation League. "We know at ADL that people are not born as little haters, we learn to hate. And just as we learn to hate, we have to unlearn to hate."

To produce and distribute the video, the ADL has teamed up with the We Are Family Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded by music producer Nile Rodgers, who co-wrote the hit 1979 song "We Are Family."

Television networks and production companies also are involved, and FedEx has agreed to ship the videos for free.

The effort sparked controversy in January when the Mississippi-based American Family Association, in an article by the editor of its monthly journal, charged that the video had a pro-gay subtext.

"On the surface, the project may appear to be a worthwhile attempt to foster greater understanding of cultural differences," wrote Ed Vitagliano. "However, a short step beneath the surface reveals that one of the differences being celebrated is homosexuality."

The video was also criticized by James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, who alluded to SpongeBob SquarePants' role in a "pro-homosexual video" during remarks to a pre-inauguration dinner in Washington.

In a telephone interview Thursday, Vitagliano said he does not object to the "innocuous" video itself but to the accompanying teaching guide, which he said "distorts the definition of family to produce a nontraditional model."

Although the guide does not specifically mention sexual orientation, Vitagliano said it is designed to lay the groundwork for acceptance of gay parents.

He pointed to a section where children are asked who is in a family, and if they say "a mommy," "a daddy," "a sister" or "a brother," the teacher is prodded to "ask further questions of the class."

"We feel that this is part of an attempt to include same-sex couples in the institution of marriage and the family," he said.

Rodgers, who joined ADL officials and others at an event launching the video at Public School 87 on Manhattan's Upper West Side, said the project is not about sexual orientation.

"We're not talking about sex at all," he said. "This is for young children."

Christopher Cerf, the author and children's TV producer who is another of the video's creators, said he was "amazed" by the criticism.

"At first I thought this was so ridiculous that it's funny," he said.

First-graders at P.S. 87 sang along with the catchy disco classic as the video was screened Thursday. It features characters from popular children's TV shows including "Sesame Street," "Blue's Clues," "Dora the Explorer" and "Winnie the Pooh," with cameos by Bill Cosby, Diana Ross and Whoopi Goldberg.

Afterward, children were asked to share artwork they had made about their families and to say what family means to them.

Answers included "Family means to me that when you want to do something you can sometimes do it with your family, and they'll take you and you'll have fun" and "It means that when I'm mad they let me be mad."

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