The last time that I heard about Arthur was when he was making a clenched fist and every citizen of the net was making or watching memes of the event 24/7.
This time, when I heard about it again, I found out that Mr. Ratburn was getting married.
My first thought was this: Arthur is still on? I watched the episode briefly and one thing I felt weird about was the animation. To be honest, it's awkward how the style of the animation changed since the last time I watched it back in my middle-school years. It really doesn't bother me how people are so angry that Mr. Ratburn is gay and getting married to another man. It didn't surprise me that some people were angry about "imposing a threat to culture for children on the welfare and sanctity of marriage" and "manipulating the thoughts of children." Alabama was obviously not pleased.
Truth be told, this isn't the first time Arthur has shown LGBT+ situations.
Back in 2005, there was severe backlash when PBS interviewed a kid, who happened to have two moms—albeit, they did not mention that they were gay, only that the child loves their step-mother has their own. I find that it's important to spread awareness about the situation concerning various lifestyles of this world. I mean, children are bound to see someone who is gay at some point in their life, and someone has to explain it eventually.
It's not like the creators of Arthur are "manipulating" kids to become gay, it's just that there could be more awareness of different lifestyles that people live and are happy as they are. Take, for instance, an episode of The Proud Family, where Penny lives with a Muslim family to learn about their customs and overcome her xenophobia for people of a different culture. I'm no parent (and I plan not to be one) but I feel that kids should be educated on the diversity of other people.
If Sesame Street discusses topics about autism, foster care, gender equity, homelessness, and more with Muppets (which are excellent approaches to do, as the kids can better relate to them) then why not Arthur? Just because a male rat gets married to another male rat doesn't mean it's the end of the world.
Kids need to know about the uniqueness of diversity, and learn about tolerance, respect, and understanding so they don't become homophobic, xenophobic, racist, sexist, transphobic, and so on, and so on.
