christian grantham
Christian Grantham was a student activist in the late 90s and later was a consultant to domestic policy forums for the Clinton Administration as well as events for HRC and GLAAD.
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January 26, 2005

If you thought Alabama Rep. Gerald Allen's (R-Cottondale) attempt to censor books, art and film in public schools depicting homosexuals by defunding them and then burning or burying those that already exist was an aberration, now the Bush Administration has brought censorship to a national level.

In a disturbing request, new Education Secretary Margaret Spellings has demanded that PBS return money from the federal Ready-to-Learn program that was spent on a cartoon depicting lesbian bunny rabbits. PBS has now cancelled airing the episode.

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said the "Sugartime!" episode does not fulfill the intent Congress had in mind. By law, she said, any funded shows must give top attention to "research-based educational objectives, content, and materials."

"Many parents would not want their young children exposed to the lifestyles portrayed in the episode," Spellings wrote in a letter sent yesterday to Pat Mitchell, president and chief executive officer of PBS.

"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."
[Education secretary blasts PBS for cartoon with gay characters - Boston Globe - 01-26-05]

However, nothing in PBS's description of "Postcards From Buster" runs counter to the grant's requirements. The cartoon exposes children to the multicultural fabric of America beyond their hometowns.

Buster takes along his video camera to send home video postcards to Arthur and his friends and family. POSTCARDS FROM BUSTER mixes animation with live-action shooting to present Buster's point of view, what he sees and who he meets through the lens of his video camera, and to show a vivid, multicultural portrait of America and the world.
[Post Cards From Buster - PBS]

It's clear the Republican Party's evangelical base doesn't view gays as part of America's diverse multiculturalism. It is becoming more and more clear the Bush Administration will go to any lengths, however unconstitutional, to carry out the will of their radical voting base.

Here are a couple of Nazi Fire Oaths to help celebrate this glorious occasion upon which our great leader has set forth to purify American culture from the plague of homosexuality!

2. Against decadence and moral decay
For discipline and decency in family and state
Heinrich Mann, Ernst Glaeser, and Erich Kästner

4. Against soul-shredding overvaluation of sexual activity
For the nobility of the human soul
Freudian School, magazine Imago
[Nazi Fire Oaths - to be read by Germans while burning undesirable books and art]