Republicans have accused US TV channel PBS of using a Pride post to “groom” young children.
To mark the start of Pride, the official account for long-time children’s favourite Sesame Street shared an image of various characters with different coloured arms – red, orange, yellow, green, blue and indigo – holding hands with one another.
The colours recreated those found on the Pride flag.
“On our street, everyone is welcome,” a message proclaimed. “Together, let’s build a world where every person and family feels loved and respected for who they are. Happy Pride month.”
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 #PrideMonth! pic.twitter.com/6JJFhxO9dC
— Sesame Street (@sesamestreet) June 1, 2025
The Republican Study Committee (RSC), which describes itself as having “served as the conservative caucus of House Republicans and a leading influencer on the right since its founding in 1973”, responded to the post with a meme of independent US senator Bernie Sanders, with the words: “I am once again asking PBS to stop grooming children.”
The RSC’s post, which has since been deleted – although still accessible in a web archive version – comes during an ongoing battle over federal funding between PBS, also the home of Arthur and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, and president Donald Trump.
In March, Republicans put forward a case for defunding PBS and public radio station NPR over alleged “radical, left-wing echo chambers” with “anti-American” bias.
During a congressional hearing, Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, recently mocked for arguing with AI chatbot Grok, said the audiences were made up of “wealthy, white, urban liberals and progressives, who generally look down on, and judge, rural America” and who were “part of transing children, brainwashing children about gender”.
She went on to claim: “For far too long, federal taxpayers have been forced to fund biased news. This needs to come to an end and it needs to come to an end now.”
Last month, Trump signed an executive order entitled Ending Taxpayer Subsidisation Of Biased Media, which called for an end to federal funding for NPR and PBS.
“Americans have the right to expect that if their tax dollars fund public broadcasting at all, they fund only fair, accurate, unbiased and non-partisan news coverage,” the directive read.
PBS and NPR responded with separate lawsuits, the former saying it was suing the administration on First Amendment grounds.
A spokesperson said: “After careful deliberation, PBS reached the conclusion that it was necessary to take legal action to safeguard public television’s editorial independence, and to protect the autonomy of PBS member stations.”
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