Republicans Push to Defund PBS After ‘Sesame Street’ Pride Month Post: ‘Grooming Children on American Taxpayers’ Dime’
PBS stands accused of “grooming” children after Sesame Street, one of the nonprofit TV network’s premier programs, shared a social media post hailing LGBTQ Pride Month that drew an immediate response from a group of Congressional Republicans.
The veteran children’s education and entertainment program went on social media to welcome the annual event built around an image of puppets holding hands, as Breitbart News reported.
On both X and Instagram, the Sesame Street pages shared a graphic of multi-colored puppets reaching out so that they resembled the colors of an LGBTQ Pride flag.
“On our street, everyone is welcome. Together, let’s build a world where every person and family feels loved and respected for who they are. Happy Pride Month,” they said.
Brooke Midgon of The Hill reports the Republican Study Committee (RSC), a coalition of GOP House members whose membership is not public, responded to the post with a meme of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and the words “I am once again asking PBS to stop grooming children.”
Other House and Senate Republicans added their voices to the chorus of displeasure.
Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL) accused PBS of “grooming” children with the post which she said “is evil and should infuriate every parent in America.”
“DEFUND!!” Miller wrote Monday on X.
“Federal funds aren’t for grooming,” Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) wrote from his personal X account, responding to a separate “Sesame Street” clip from a 2020 episode that featured “Queer Eye” host Jonathan Van Ness.
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) also reacted by using the same clip, admonishing the broadcaster by saying, “PBS is grooming children on American taxpayers’ dime. This is unacceptable. Congress must defund them and hold the executives accountable.”
The debate sparked by the PBS Pride statement came just days after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE), previewed the upcoming House vote to defund PBS and NPR, ensuring the public knows she is a proud “YES” vote, as Breitbart News reported.
The vote comes one month after Trump signed an executive order halting funds to both PBS and NPR in an order bluntly titled, “ENDING TAXPAYER SUBSIDIZATION OF BIASED MEDIA.”
The executive order contends Americans have the fundamental right to expect their tax dollars — particular those going to fund public broadcasting — to fund only “fair, accurate, unbiased, and nonpartisan news coverage.”
NPR has since sued the Trump administration over this order.
The AP reports both PBS and NPR receive “roughly half a billion dollars in public money through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.”
