'Arthur' Character Comes Out as Gay in New Episode

An Arthur character is coming out of the closet!

Mr. Ratburn, Arthur’s teacher, came out as gay in the 22nd season premiere episode (“Mr. Ratburn and the Special Someone”) of the long-running PBS children’s series.

In the episode, the students see Mr. Ratburn speaking to an uptight woman (voiced by Jane Lynch) and, assuming she is the woman he’s trying to marry, come up with a plan to try and stop the wedding to save their teacher.

They later learn that the woman is his sister, and when Mr. Ratburn walks down the aisle at his wedding, he is linked arm-in-arm with a man. The children are then happy for their teacher.

It’s not the first LGBTQ-related storyline in the series: the show also featured a character with two moms in a 2005 episode.

Click here to see pictures from the episode.