--- title: Alabama Public Television Bans Gay Wedding Episode of Arthur description: APT chose not to air the May 14 season premiere, running a re-run instead. canonical: https://time.com/5592567/alabama-bans-arthur-gay-wedding/ author: Ciara Nugent article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-05-21T12:29:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T23:33:52.432Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Alabama Public Television Refuses to Air Episode of 'Arthur' Featuring a Gay Wedding og:description: The episode showed Arthur's third-grade teacher getting married og:url: https://time.com/5592567/alabama-bans-arthur-gay-wedding/ 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=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: mr-ratburn-arthur-comes-out-as-gay-wedding og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Alabama Public Television Refuses to Air Episode of 'Arthur' Featuring a Gay Wedding twitter:description: The episode showed Arthur's third-grade teacher getting married twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltba28d6f072063f8f/698949e6929fad8724bf3342/mr-ratburn-arthur-comes-out-as-gay-wedding.png?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Alabama Public Television Refuses to Air Episode of _Arthur_ Featuring a Gay Wedding > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Ciara Nugent](https://time.com/author/ciara-nugent/)  ## Ciara Nugent May 21, 2019 12:29 PM UTC  PBS  by [Ciara Nugent](https://time.com/author/ciara-nugent/)  ## Ciara Nugent May 21, 2019 12:29 PM UTC Alabama’s public television network has banned an episode of the PBS cartoon series _Arthur_ that features a same-sex marriage. The episode, entitled “Mr. Ratburn and the Special Someone,” shows the wedding of Arthur’s third-grade teacher Mr. Ratburn – a cartoon rat – to his partner, a chocolatier named Patrick. It aired nationwide on May 13 as the series 22nd season premiere, [prompting widespread online praise from supporters of LGBTQ rights](http://time.com/5588823/mr-ratburn-arthur-gay-wedding-season-22/). But Alabama Public Television (APT) decided to show a re-run instead, after being notified about the episode by PBS, local news site [AL.com](https://www.al.com/news/2019/05/alabama-public-television-refuses-to-air-arthur-episode-with-gay-wedding.html) reports. “\[Although\] 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,” Mike Mckenzie, director of programming at APT said in a statement to AL. “We also know that children who are younger than the ‘target’ audience for Arthur also watch the program.” APT has no plans to show the episode in future, Mckenzie added. Alabama is one of the most conservative states in the U.S., 44% of people identifying as conservative – second only to Mississippi –, according to [a 2018 Gallup poll.](https://news.gallup.com/poll/247016/conservatives-greatly-outnumber-liberals-states.aspx) This is not the first time APT has banned a cartoon featuring LGBTQ characters. In 2005 the network pulled an episode of the _Arthur_ spinoff _Postcards From Buster_ which included a lesbian couple. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5592567/alabama-bans-arthur-gay-wedding/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5592567/alabama-bans-arthur-gay-wedding/"},"headline":"Alabama Public Television Refuses to Air Episode of Arthur Featuring a Gay Wedding","datePublished":"2019-05-21T12:29:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T23:33:52.432Z","description":"APT chose not to air the May 14 season premiere, running a re-run instead.","url":"https://time.com/5592567/alabama-bans-arthur-gay-wedding/","keywords":["Television","alabama","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":"Ciara Nugent","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ciara-nugent/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","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":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/television/","name":"Television"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5592567/alabama-bans-arthur-gay-wedding/","name":"Alabama Public Television Refuses to Air Episode of Arthur Featuring a Gay Wedding"}}]}] ```