Whitney Houston once sang, “I believe the children are our future/Teach them well and let them lead the way.” Now, however, I’m questioning what the children are being taught.
Reading over reports about the new documentary “The World According to Sesame Street,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival over the weekend, filled me with a sense of pride and nostalgia. Being a baby of the ’80s, I was raised on the friendly and furry faces of the Muppet series which preached diversity and tolerance for all.
Where else could I have learned it was OK to be black, white, fat, thin, disabled, gay, a vampire, a monster … wait a minute. Let’s play a game of “One of These Things (is Not Like The Others.)”
Though the characters on “Sesame Street” have strived to paint a picture of a peaceful planet where everyone’s differences are celebrated, one group has been conspicuously omitted. Sure there’s always been speculation if Bert and Ernie push those beds together when the lights are out, but “Sesame Street” has stayed away from ever explicitly outing its characters.
I give “Sesame Street” a lot of credit. It laid the foundation for me to look at the world and see its people and places as beautiful and special in their own way. Even as I got older and lived to see tragedies and disasters, the promise of the utopian world “Sesame Street” showed me as a child stayed strong. Across the world, adaptations of “Sesame Street” have illustrated understanding in the Israeli-Palestinian version, empowered Muslim girls in the Egyptian version and even introduced an HIV-positive character to the South African incarnation (albeit acquired from an infected mother). “Sesame Street” has pushed social barriers, so why play it so safe here in the states?
The answer is enough to dishearten even the ever-pleasant Elmo: Right now in America, it’s not OK to be gay. Or at least that’s the message we want to send to our children.
It’s hard to believe in our age of political correctness and free-to-be-you-and-me mentality that such sentiment exists, but look over some of the events of 2005 and it’s difficult to deny.
Take the commotion caused by PBS’s “Postcards from Buster” last January. The show, which tells stories of different kinds of families, featured a segment profiling a Vermont family with lesbian mothers. The episode did not focus on the mothers or their choice of lifestyle, but rather about harvesting maple syrup. PBS pulled the episode, though some of its affiliates, like local WGBH, aired it anyway. It was enough of a stir for U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings to chime in with a letter to PBS informing them the episode featured lifestyles some parents might not want their children exposed to.
It’s easy from our liberal Massachusetts high-horse to dismiss Buster-gate as typical middle-America neo-conservatism but it’s a little more concerning when it’s happening at home.
David Parker, of Lexington, objected when his 5-year-old son brought home a diversity book from school depicting same-sex parents. He even went so far as to trespass school grounds to remove his son from a discussion on the same issue. Parker was arrested and jailed, but still feels he was wronged by the school for not letting him choose how to raise his son.
The question immediately on my mind is: What if a parent was a member of the Ku Klux Klan and didn’t believe his child should be exposed to black families? Would the school be obligated under those terms to notify the parents and let them choose whether or not to include their children? I don’t think that would fly, so why does it become a national debate over whether or not it’s acceptable to teach children that (gasp!) homosexuality exists? If we can teach interracial relationships are acceptable and single-parent households are totally cool, why not same-sex parents?
Even on our own campus, when it comes to homosexuality, it’s a sore spot for some. At December’s diversity event titled “Why Are We Afraid?,” a question from an audience member targeted a NUBiLAGA representative and asked whether he would be here if his parents had been homosexuals – a rather pointed remark questioning the morality of such a “choice.” It’s sad that in an event filled with such amazing, touching moments, it’s that one statement that stays with me.
And so we are left to ponder the fatal flaw of diversity: In being tolerant, are we to tolerate the intolerant? In my opinion, no.
Regardless of personal beliefs regarding homosexuality and its moral value, there are gay people out there. And just like other under-represented populations, they won’t just go away if you ignore them. Education is always the best policy, so it’s time to put homosexuals on children’s programming and in a small but stylish flat on good ol’ “Sesame Street.”
– Bobby Hankinson can be reached at style@nu-news.com
