For Immediate Release
Today was the long awaited day for me: "Sugartime" was aired on my local PBS station, the "Postcards from Buster" episode challenged by the Department of Education and then censored by PBS with the decision not to distribute this show to PBS affiliates. Racing home so as not to miss it, I plunked down in front of the TV, eagerly anticipating the program that had raised so much controversy.I admit to being a Buster novice though I've been a fan of Arthur (both created by Marc Brown). This was my first time with Buster's travels. Although it brought back my own memories of visiting my aunt's and uncle's farm at sugartime when I was growing up, I really did not see anything particularly memorable nor offensive in the episode. Frankly, I was disappointed that it seemed so ordinary after all the furor, though that is exactly where its excellence lies. Like in everyday experiences of "mud season" in Vermont, Buster's friends traipsing through and sinking into the mud, boots covered. Probably Vermont moms were the ones who invented "mudrooms."
In the beginning, Buster's dad explained simply that Karen, the mother of the family Buster was going to visit, was a photographer Buster's mom had formerly worked with, and that Karen lived "with her partner Gillian." When Buster arrived, Karen raved that he looked just like his mom.
As Karen's daughter Emma was showing Buster around the house, introducing him to the dogs and the frogs, they passed an area displaying family photos. Buster asked about the people in them; Emma pointed out Gillian as her step-mom; he responded that "that's a lot of moms" and then commented favorably on a picture of Karen and Gillian. Emma shared that she liked that photo best, because it was the picture of the people she loves most. Later, when Buster was playing with the two boys in the family, he remarked that they didn't look very much alike even though they were brothers. They explained that they were step-brothers.
Karen asked Emma to go borrow a lasagna pan from their neighbors with whom they were going to have supper that evening, and she used the two women's names. When the daughter and Buster arrived to get the pan, only one mom was home. At supper, the women did not sit next to each other and did not make any references to each other as partners. It was a Friday night meal, and they explained that they were celebrating Shabbat. Buster observed that their tradition was slightly different than another one he had experienced with a friend.
It was not until the bonfire later in the weekend that the women were even standing near each other, as they were being photographed for a group picture that Karen shot. The four women stood next to each other, one with her arm around the woman next to her, while the children sat on a log in front of them, with Buster in the middle. It looked like a lot of other gatherings where I've been, and some of those cases simply reflected that male members of the family had commitments elsewhere. Often mothers, regardless of sexual orientation, hang together. They just looked like sisters, friends, or family, which they are.
The show focused on learning how maple syrup is made. They showed two different ways to gather the sap. They showed the vats of sap; it takes a lot of sap and a lot of boiling to make a gallon of maple syrup. In addition, it showed: some treats that are made from maple syrup (and the children enjoying them); how cows are milked and how baby calves are fed with large bottles; making chocolate chip cookies (which was hard for Buster to stir while holding the camera); playing in the hay mow, still partially filled with bales of hay to climb up and jump off into piles of loose hay below; and how to lay wood for a bonfire. I was surprised that the burning of the Christmas tree at the bonfire, "out with winter, in with spring," wasn't dubbed a pagan ritual by the critics; apparently being lesbian is worse than being pagan in the hierarchy of name-calling these days.
No one ever used the word lesbian or gay in this episode. The offense seems to have been that Buster's father used the word "partner," tipping us off--otherwise, anyone could have assumed the women were single moms pooling resources and sharing responsibilities. (Or maybe lesbians just aren't as invisible as they used to be.) Because of independent articles written during the controversy, we know that Karen and Gillian have, in fact, been joined in a Vermont civil union. Though the show referred to additional related information at http://www.pbskids.org (which is probably their standard thing to do), the link to Buster's visit is not functional in one place, and it is also not listed in his travel blog. So PBS continues its censorship, not allowing families to have a real choice about full access to this episode.
All in all, I can't believe the hoopla that this episode generated, nor how much time I took to write about it two months before I had seen it, due to the ruckus caused by the new Secretary of the Department of Education's statements. Multiply that by the hundreds who felt similarly obligated. How could this time have been better utilized? Aren't these accusations from the "right" distractions and smokescreens which divert us from the issues we should be paying closer attention to instead?
Like when Buster turns 18, will he have to register for the draft or fight in a war he opposes? Or if his mom loses her job, will they have to deal with how food will get on the table? Or if his dad becomes ill, will he have access to health care? Or are his grandparents going to slip through a hole in the Social Security safety net? I discovered later that Buster's parents are divorced, another aspect of his life which surely affects his experiences. These may not be appropriate issues for Buster and children's TV programming any more than two moms in a household, but millions of children are affected by them every day in our country. And many other countries. I'm sure that we and our U.S. Department of Education should find better ways to "protect our children" than eliminating pairs of moms from TV programming.
Peggy R. Gaylord
March 23, 2005
The Rev. Peggy R. Gaylord is a co-spokesperson for Affirmation: United Methodists for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Concerns, Inc.