PBS Kids' Odd Squad Features Same-Sex Wedding, with Agent Oswald Officiating
- Michael Foust Crosswalk Headlines Contributor
- Updated Jul 18, 2022
The popular children’s math show Odd Squad this month became the latest PBS Kids series to include a same-sex couple when the characters attended the wedding of two women.
The episode, called “Monumental Oddness,” follows the Odd Squad group as they attempt to stop an evil villain from shrinking the world’s most famous monuments into tiny keychains. Their journey takes them to Paris’ Eiffel Tower, where they encounter an outdoor wedding of a lesbian couple.
“There is a villain heading this way,” Agent Orla, one of the Odd Squad characters, shouts through a bullhorn. “We need you to move the wedding away from here!”
But the two women, ready to exchange vows, push back on the request.
“We've been waiting for this day for years,” one of the women tells Agent Orla.
“And there's no villain stronger than our love for each other,” the other woman says. To that, Agent Osward puts his hand on his heart, touched by the moment.
“Could you get married fast?” Agent Orla asks.
“We would -- except our wedding officiant isn't here yet,” one of the women responds. “The same for our flower girl and our musicians.”
Agents Orla and Oswald then help with the wedding, tending to the women’s dresses and fixing their hair. They toss flower petals down the aisle. Orla plays a harp. Oswald officiates.
“I now declare you married,” Oswald says.
Later, Orla and Oswald attend the reception and dance with the two brides.
The episode isn’t the first time a same-sex wedding was included in a PBS series. In 2019, the series Arthur inserted a same-sex wedding into the plot, when Arthur and his classmates attended the wedding of their male teacher, Mr. Ratburn, who married a man. In 2020, Clifford the Big Red Dog broached the subject when one of Emily Elizabeth’s friends brought her two moms to a dinner party.
Related:
PBS Kids’ ‘Clifford the Big Red Dog’ Introduces LGBT Characters
Arthur Becomes 1st PBS Cartoon with a Gay Wedding – ‘It’s a Brand-New World’
Photo courtesy: ©PBS, used with permission.
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
