My name is Emma Riesner. I was a main character in a small children’s show called “Postcards from Buster.” My family was first discovered from a book called America 24/7. A broadcasting station called WGBH saw a picture in the book that my mom took of a lesbian family. WGBH called our family, and they asked us if we wanted to be on the TV show. I was pretty excited about being on the TV show because I love Arthur. I thought it was a good idea to do a show about his best friend, Buster.



I do not think it is such a big deal that I have two moms. There is nothing wrong with having two moms. We are no different from any other American family living the average life. However, Margaret Spellings, US Secretary of Education, and Pat Mitchell, President of PBS, didn’t want children to see my moms. So they canceled our episode.

I thought that people would think that I was weird because I had two moms. But when everyone started reading about the episode in hundreds of newspaper articles around the country, they thought it was really cool. A lot of people came up to me and said stuff like, “I wish I had two moms,” and “What's it like having two moms?”

To be honest, I got really tired of all the interviews and reporters. The phone was ringing off the hook, and I didn’t like that my moms had to go away to protest so much. I felt like screaming at Margaret Spellings, “Hey, put that back on the air.” Luckily I live in Vermont, a state that aired it anyway.

Even though the episode was canceled, lots of people helped me feel better. I got a case of ice cream from Ben & Jerry’s with a letter saying they were proud of our family. I got a teddy bear from a straight father with two teenagers in Pennsylvania. I got a trip to Washington, D.C., to show the episode in the Church of the Pilgrims. We were all invited on the Rosie O’Donnell’s R Family Cruise for the vacation of a lifetime (and Rosie is awesome). Finally, my whole family was invited to Provincetown, Massachusetts, to receive the Family Pride Coalition’s “Families of Courage” award. So I learned that even though Margaret Spellings is prejudiced against lesbian and gay families, there are lots of people like Buster who love ALL families.

Now when I watch the episode, I see things I wish I could do over. I am like, “oh, I wish I could have done that differently,” and “oh, I wish I could have said that instead.” So it still would be fun to do it again, even though it was really hard work. If we had another chance to do this again, we would take it, and we would give Margaret Spellings a piece of our minds.