Alabama Public Television has given a children’s cartoon more publicity than it has ever received when it decided not to air an episode due to the station’s homophobia.

The 22nd season of Arthur begins with the title character’s third grade teacher coming out and marrying his partner.

In a statement, Mike McKenzie, director of programming at Alabama Public Television said:

Parents have trusted Alabama Public Television for more than 50 years to provide children’s programs that entertain, educate and inspire. More importantly — although we strongly encourage parents to watch television with their children and talk about what they have learned afterwards — parents trust that their children can watch APT without their supervision. We also know that children who are younger than the ‘target’ audience for Arthur also watch the program.

We know that children don’t have problems understanding relationships between same-sex couples, but in many cases adults do. So we recommend a warning that parents don’t watch the season premiere of Arthur without children present to explain it to you.

— David Taffet