Oklahoma governor axes PBS funding over shows with LGBTQ+ content

May 2024 · 2 minute read

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt has received questions after denying funding for the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority over shows with LGBTQ+ content.

OETA is the most-watched PBS station in the country,” Friends of OETA board member Ken Busby said. “Over 650,000 viewers a week are watching PBS in Oklahoma.”

Those impressive numbers haven’t fazed Stitt, who said the OETA should lose its funding because its programming features the LGBT+ community.

H.B. 2820 was one of more than 20 bills vetoed by the governor late Wednesday evening. It would have secured OETA’s funding through 2026 if signed into law.

That, to me, is an outdated system,” Stitt said during a news conference Friday. “It may have had its place in 1957. Why are we paying taxpayer dollars to prop up OETA?”

But OETA, which broadcasts PBS throughout Oklahoma, is still plenty popular with parents.

“Some people that don’t have kids may not realize how well they’ve done,” one Tulsan parent of two said. “It’d be sad to see them go.”

“It would suck,” one parent said as their partner nodded.

But Stitt disagrees.

“I don’t think Oklahomans want to use their tax dollars to indoctrinate kids,” he told reporters. “And some of the stuff that they’re showing, it just overly sexualizes our kids. There’s elevating LGBTQIA2S+ voices.”

“I haven’t noticed that at all,” one parent countered.

Busby not only disagrees with the governor’s assertion, but said PBS is an invaluable source of artistic, cultural and historical programming that wouldn’t find a home on other networks.

No civilization since the Norman Conquest in 1066 has survived that did not support arts and culture,” he said. “They’re all gone ... It's culture, it's history, and it's arts.”

Busby proposed a solution if the governor doesn’t like what he sees.

“I have a device called a remote control,” he said, “and I can turn it off. I can change the channel. I can go read a book. I can go do something else. I can go play frisbee.”

He said the invisible hand of the free market holds a remote control.

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