Chez Chesler

The pressure caused PBS to fold, and it did not air the "Buster in Vermont" episode nationally, but some individual stations did show it. Soon after the controversy, PBS president Pat Mitchell announced she was going to quit, but not because of Buster. Although, rumor has it that the bunny feels terrible about the entire situation.

But not as terrible as Congressman Barney Frank who, as a proud gay man, is outraged that Education Secretary dissed Buster visiting the lesbians. Frank wrote a letter to Spellings, spelling it out: "You have said that families should not have to deal with reality of the existence of same-sex couples, and the strong implication is that this is something from which young children should be shielded."

Well, yeah, Barn, that's correct. Many Americans believe that little kids should have a childhood and not be subjected to any kind of sexuality. I don't want to be offensive here, but who in their right mind wants to explain Norma and Barbara's lifestyle to their four-year-old? Give the kids a break, okay?

I do my best to shield my kids from sex. Mommy and Daddy love each other, and hold hands and sleep in the same bed, but what goes on in that bed is nobody's business. Most of the families they know, like most families on TV and like most families in reality, are centered around a straight couple. And what goes on between those couples isn't their business.

If a household in reality, or in TV, is made up of two men or two women, and my kids find out about it, they're still not exposed to any more sex than when they learn some couple is one man and one woman, or some individual is alone because he or she has never married, or has become widowed, or has divorced. Widowed or divorced worries them a lot more, and requires a lot more explaining, than singles, gay couples, or group marriages, for what should be very obvious reasons.

Maybe Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, O'Reilly, and a bunch of other people can't see a family in which both adults are women without obsessing about who does what to whom, and how. As for me, I figure it's none of my business, and if my kids realize that not every family fits the same pattern as ours, no harm will come of it.