Okay, now it's literally officially reached scary

Not about the FCC or directly about self-censorship, but the scary part certainly fits.

"Postcards From Buster" is a children's educational show starring an animated rabbit who travels to different parts of the country with a digital video camera, meeting different people (real people, not cartoon ones) of different backgrounds and religions, talking about different cultures and regional events. One of those harmless, sweet, everybody-is-nice and everything-is-interesting shows.

Or so it would seem. But beneath that veneer (ominous background music slowly builds) lies a black heart, alien to all things clean and decent. But some are not fooled! Some stand against this tide of evil! Some want, above all, to PROTECT THE CHILDREN! (Ominous music reaches a crescendo.)

Among those dedicated to the safety of those dear little souls is new Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, who, in one of her first official acts, denounced PBS for planning to distribute an episode of "Postcards From Buster" called "Sugartime!" in which he goes to Vermont - because two lesbian couples appear in the show.

"Many parents would not want their young children exposed to the lifestyles portrayed in the episode," Spellings wrote in a letter sent Tuesday to Pat Mitchell, president and chief executive officer of PBS.

"Congress' and the Department's purpose in funding this programming certainly was not to introduce this kind of subject matter to children, particularly through the powerful and intimate medium of television."'

Spelling wanted anything connecting the show to the her department removed and for PBS to notify member stations of "the nature of the show." (Sidebar: the "nature of the show" is about farm life and maple sugaring; same-sex civil unions, legal in Vermont, are not addressed.)

What's more, she wants PBS to give back to the department, which provides funding for distributing the show, any money that was spent on it and not-so-subtly threatened PBS's future funding:

In closing, she warned: "You can be assured that in the future the department will be more clear as to its expectations for any future programming that it funds."

PBS, to what should be no one's surprise, caved immediately and pulled the episode from distribution while ludicrously insisting that the threatening letter had nothing to do with it.

"Ultimately, our decision was based on the fact that we recognize this is a sensitive issue, and we wanted to make sure that parents had an opportunity to introduce this subject to their children in their own time," said Lea Sloan, vice president of media relations at PBS.

But wait - the show, again, involves Buster meeting people of different backgrounds and religions. Aren't there parents who want to introduce other religions, other cultures, "in their own time?" I mean, there are people out there who don't want older children, much less the age group Buster is aiming for, exposed to "unchristian" ideas (like, for example, evolution). Why are their worries ignored?

Reversing that to the real question, why are gays and lesbians apparently the only ones who are to be made invisible? Why are they the only ones too controversial, too much a "sensitive issue" to suffer children to be exposed to them? What are PBS and Spelling afraid of? What warping of the tender psyches of the dear little children (Think of the children!) do they see happening? That children might come to see gay as lesbian couples as ordinary people? That would be horrible, wouldn't it?

So just whose psyches are being protected? The children? Or their homophobic parents? Or, perhaps even more likely, the homophobic Margaret Spellings?

Footnote: WGBH, the Boston public television station that produces "Buster" will air the episode on March 23 and will make it available to other stations. Good for them.