A Birmingham, Alabama, church will screen the “Arthur” episode featuring a same-sex wedding between two of its characters after it was shunned by Alabama Public Television last month.
According to a Facebook event page set up by the First United Methodist Church in collaboration with the Sidewalk Film Festival and the SHOUT LGBTQ Festival, attendees can watch “Mr. Ratburn and the Special Someone” on June 15 at the church where they’ll be treated to free food and drinks.
“There will be wedding cake, sparkling apple juice and surprises,” a description for the event states.
In the Season 22 premiere of the PBS children’s program, Mr. Ratburn, who was Arthur’s third grade teacher, marries his male partner. Though the cartoon’s storyline was well-received on social media by Twitter users who reacted with excitement, the Alabama network refused to air it on May 13, choosing to rerun an old episode instead.
In a statement to AL.com, APT programming director Mike Mckenzie emphasized that the show’s audience comprises young viewers:
Parents have trusted Alabama Public Television for more than 50 years to provide children’s programs that entertain, educate and inspire. 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. We also know that children who are younger than the “target” audience for Arthur also watch the program.
Though Mr. Ratburn’s nuptials were not explicitly identified as the cause for APT’s decision to reject the episode, in 2005, the network also refused to air an episode in which a bunny character named Buster visits a girl with two mothers.
That year, APT’s then-executive director Allan Pizzato told AL.com that “we basically have a trust with parents about our programming.”
“This program doesn’t fit into that,” he added.
Nearly 100 attendees were signed up for the Birmingham church’s event on Monday, with more than 470 others showing interest.