--- title: Arthur Character Mr. Ratburn Comes Out as Gay, Has Wedding description: The Internet's collective heart was bursting with joy upon finding out that longtime 'Arthur' character Mr. Ratburn had a same-sex wedding. canonical: https://time.com/5588823/mr-ratburn-arthur-gay-wedding-season-22/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-05-14T14:59:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:58:58.019Z og:title: The Internet Is Overjoyed that Arthur's Mr. Ratburn Came Out og:description: In the show's 22nd season premiere og:url: https://time.com/5588823/mr-ratburn-arthur-gay-wedding-season-22/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltba28d6f072063f8f/698949e6929fad8724bf3342/mr-ratburn-arthur-comes-out-as-gay-wedding.png?branch=production&width=999&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 999 og:image:height: 562 og:image:alt: mr-ratburn-arthur-comes-out-as-gay-wedding og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Internet Is Overjoyed that Arthur's Mr. Ratburn Came Out twitter:description: In the show's 22nd season premiere twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltba28d6f072063f8f/698949e6929fad8724bf3342/mr-ratburn-arthur-comes-out-as-gay-wedding.png?branch=production&width=999&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Internet Is Overjoyed for _Arthur_ Character Mr. Ratburn's Same-Sex Wedding > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=eeaf5054-cf57-4d29-aa57-9231a6d6ddc0&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang May 14, 2019 2:59 PM UTC  PBS  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang May 14, 2019 2:59 PM UTC In the premiere episode of season 22 of beloved ([and very meme-worthy](http://time.com/4438715/arthur-memes/)) children’s show, [_Arthur_](http://time.com/5318564/chrissy-teigen-john-legend-arthur-meme-trolling/)_,_ viewers learned something new about longtime character, Mr. Ratburn. In the episode, Mr. Ratburn, best known as Arthur’s wry and wise third grade teacher, gets married to his new husband, an aardvark chocolatier named Patrick — a union that Arthur and his friends Buster, Muffy and Francine discover when they crash the wedding. This isn’t the first time that _Arthur_ has covered same sex unions on the show; in the 2005 spinoff show, _Postcards from Buster,_ [a lesbian couple in Vermont was featured during the episode “Sugartime!”](https://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/27/arts/culture-wars-pull-buster-into-the-fray.html) The publicly-funded episode sparked criticism from then-Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, which led to it getting pulled from PBS (although some affiliates continued to air it). Over a decade later, however, Mr. Ratburn’s big day has been widely celebrated on the Internet, with viewers and fans of the show sending their support via social media. Some fans were ecstatic for Mr. Ratburn’s official coming out on the show and his new marriage. > [](https://twitter.com/WOLFNOlR/status/1127962625319538688) > [](https://twitter.com/rachelagiese/status/1128038765736361985) While others were invested in the drama of the episode. > [](https://twitter.com/ChristiTrottie/status/1128047152394121217) Others still were amazed that it took 22 seasons for this storyline to emerge. > [](https://twitter.com/Phil%5FLewis%5F/status/1128032147057586176) > [](https://twitter.com/saulmalone/status/1128051582703038464) Congratulations to the happy couple! > [](https://twitter.com/MrHissara/status/1128052543555158016) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5588823/mr-ratburn-arthur-gay-wedding-season-22/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5588823/mr-ratburn-arthur-gay-wedding-season-22/"},"headline":"The Internet Is Overjoyed for Arthur Character Mr. Ratburn's Same-Sex Wedding","datePublished":"2019-05-14T14:59:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:58:58.019Z","description":"In the show's 22nd season premiere","url":"https://time.com/5588823/mr-ratburn-arthur-gay-wedding-season-22/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltba28d6f072063f8f/698949e6929fad8724bf3342/mr-ratburn-arthur-comes-out-as-gay-wedding.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltba28d6f072063f8f/698949e6929fad8724bf3342/mr-ratburn-arthur-comes-out-as-gay-wedding.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"mr-ratburn-arthur-comes-out-as-gay-wedding","caption":"","creditText":"PBS","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5588823/mr-ratburn-arthur-gay-wedding-season-22/","name":"The Internet Is Overjoyed for Arthur Character Mr. Ratburn's Same-Sex Wedding"}}]}] ```