Don’t they have something better to do?

The latest flap brought to you by the brilliant minds over at Focus on the Family is their criticism of Sponge Bob Square Pants for...ahem…promoting a gay agenda. SpongeBob, Barney, Winnie the Pooh, Bob the Builder, the Rugrats and other TV cartoon characters appear in a video singing "We Are Family," in a post-September 11 appeal to encourage tolerance. Apparently, the conservative Christian group takes exception to being asked to respect sexual identity. Because discrimination cloaked in the guise of religious beliefs isn't really discrimination, right?

Sponge Bob was singled out for particular disapproval because, in 2002, the media reported that the little yellow guy was popular among gays. But just because people – or cartoon characters – are popular among gays doesn't mean that they are gay themselves. I mean, Sponge Bob wears tighty whities...what self-respecting gay man would wear tighty whities? Nickelodeon’s comment: "It's a sponge, for crying out loud. He has no sexuality." And even if he were gay, it's not like he's french kissing Patrick on the show.

Now, DCist reports that PBS Kids' new Postcards from Buster show has come under fire for featuring a lesbian couple. Fox, in a recent rerun of the Family Guy (definitely not a children's show) pixilated an animated baby's bare bottom. At least the FCC (showing some balls for once) is not descending into this madness. In a recent ruling, the commission rejected a complaint against the Simpsons (also, admittedly not a children's show) for a show that included a scene in which students carried picket signs with the phrases "What would Jesus glue?" and "Don't cut off my pianissimo." (Fer cryin' out loud - they were protesting cuts in arts funding for the school, people!)

When Jerry Falwell decried Tinky Winky's gayness (OK, I'll give him that – Tinky Winky is referred to as a "he" but his favorite toy is a purse, and he sometimes wears a tutu – not that there's anything wrong with it), it was amusing. Now, it's part of a larger and more disturbing trend of discrimination and open hostility toward gay Americans. And anyway you look at it, there is something wrong with that.