Republicans are once again clashing with the taxpayer-funded Public Broadcasting Service, but this time the target is clear: a Pride Month message posted by the long-running children’s show Sesame Street. The image featured puppet characters holding hands in rainbow colors, resembling an LGBTQ flag, with a caption reading, “On our street, everyone is welcome.”
That seemingly innocuous message lit a political fuse in Washington.
The Republican Study Committee (RSC), a coalition of conservative House members, quickly responded with a viral meme of Bernie Sanders and the line, “I am once again asking PBS to stop grooming children.” GOP lawmakers echoed the charge, accusing PBS of misusing public funds to indoctrinate kids with far-left ideology.
Representative Mary Miller (R-IL) didn’t hold back, calling the Pride-themed post “evil” and warning it “should infuriate every parent in America.” She added a blunt demand: “DEFUND!!”
Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) followed suit, citing a separate Sesame Street episode from 2020 featuring LGBTQ activist and Queer Eye star Jonathan Van Ness. Lee wrote, “Federal funds aren’t for grooming.”
Arizona Congressman Andy Biggs joined the chorus, accusing PBS of “grooming children on American taxpayers’ dime,” calling the network’s content “unacceptable” and demanding Congress “defund them and hold the executives accountable.”
This isn’t just talk. The outrage comes just as Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who chairs the Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE), is preparing to bring a formal vote to the floor to defund PBS and its sister network NPR. Greene has already pledged a “YES” vote and made clear this is part of a broader effort to stop what she sees as ideological indoctrination disguised as public education.
Fueling the momentum behind the defunding push is a recent executive order signed by President Trump in early May, bluntly titled “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media.” The order halts federal funds for both PBS and NPR, citing Americans’ right not to have their taxes support media that peddles political bias and “radical social engineering.”
The Trump administration argues that programming funded by federal dollars should be neutral, informative, and educational—not politically charged or partisan. The order asserts that PBS and NPR have failed that standard and no longer deserve taxpayer support.
Not surprisingly, the move has sparked backlash from the left. NPR filed a lawsuit against the administration, hoping to overturn the funding freeze. Meanwhile, both networks continue to receive money through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which disburses about $500 million annually in public funds.
But that stream may soon dry up. With growing pressure from conservatives in both the House and Senate—and the president already pulling the trigger on an executive order—public broadcasting could be on the brink of a major financial and political reckoning.
As for Sesame Street, what used to be seen as innocent children’s entertainment is now being thrust into the front lines of America’s culture wars. Conservatives see the Pride post not as a one-off, but as part of a broader agenda by the left to use media to influence the youngest Americans.
Whether Congress will follow through on fully defunding PBS remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: the era of unquestioned taxpayer support for public media may be coming to an end.
