In 2004, PBS Kids launched Postcards from Buster, a show about an animated rabbit who visits real-life families across America. It was an innocuous little show, but my kids were six and four at the time, and we spent many hours during the long cold Minnesota winters watching anything PBS had to offer.

One afternoon, in an episode called "Sugartime" Buster the rabbit visited a family in Vermont who made maple sugar. It just so happened that the family was headed by a lesbian couple. The episode wasn’t about lesbianism, and short of showing a happy family with a mom and a stepmom, there was no reference to, nor mention of same sex marriage, or gay couples, or lesbian parenting. It was simply a glimpse of happy kids with loving parents who lived in a bucolic farming community.

I remember being surprised and impressed by the way the episode was handled. It showed a maturity in broadcasting that I hadn’t seen much of, to have a show with a gay couple that wasn’t explicitly about being gay, or a mocking caricature of gay parenting. My kids were happily entertained -- and they were far more curious as to whether we could make our own maple sugar than why those kids were being raised by (gasp) two women.

Later that afternoon I wrote PBS an email applauding the show and their decision to produce and air it. And a few days later I received an email back. The woman who wrote it thanked me for my support, and let me know how much PBS appreciated my positive feedback. She added that my email was particularly heartening as the station had also received a flood negative emails and phone calls from outraged parents who apparently thought it was blasphemous of PBS to expose their children to images of happy successful families run by same sex couples.

People were so outraged in fact, that Margaret Spellings, the Secretary of Education at the time, publically criticized PBS for airing the show due to its dangerous same sex message, and demanded that PBS return any  federal funding used to produce the episode. (Sound familiar?) The episode was quickly taken out of rotation and shortly after, the CEO of PBS stepped down.

I was dismayed. What had initially seemed like a  sign that the world I brought my children into was becoming more tolerant, turned out to be a lesson that the world is in fact still filled with ignorant bullies who raise their children to believe that it is important to agressively fear and hate those who are different from us.

When my children were little I understood implicitly that one of my most important roles as their mother –along with potty training and teaching them never to whine – was to give them a set of values that they could live their lives by. I am proud to say that the values I  taught my children include embracing those who are different, and accepting them for who they are.

Over the years we’ve had many conversations about what it means to be gay. They are 10 and 12 now and they understand that gay simply means boys who like boys, and girls who like girls. It’s not a complicated or taboo topic, nor is it something  worthy of judgment. In fact to them the idea of how they feel about a person’s gayness is not even about tolerance so much as acceptance. They understand that whether a person is gay or straight is simply a part of who they are, just as their nationality, or hair color, or athletic ability are part of who they are. These are features that make a person unique and special, and they should be appreciated, not judged.

Happily, as the years passed it seems as if the world they are growing up in has grown more tolerant. The It Gets Better campaign  is making it clear that gay kids have the support of a broad and powerful community, and that they aren’t going away – no matter how much the bullies want them to. My children see gay characters on TV, and kids wearing Gay Pride t-shirts from Old Navy. They have gay teachers and gay family friends, and they don’t question whether these people have a right to be who they are. They simply accept them.

A few weeks ago, we watched the episode of Glee in which Kurt and Blaine kiss for the first time. We love this show, and we’ve watched Kurt dream about  finding love all season. When they finally kissed, my kids literally jumped up and cheered.

They celebrated this kiss because they recognized the magic of that  moment. A first kiss is an amazing thing. They didn’t care that it was a same sex kiss, or think to be disgusted or outraged by this simple human act -- which they have seen the straight version of a thousand times on TV. They were just happy that Kurt found someone. He deserves to be loved and they understand that finding such love -- straight or gay -- is something special.

Seeing their response to that kiss made me proud of them, and proud of myself for being their mother. When I became a parent I hoped that I would  produce amazing kids, and I worry every day that I have made mistakes. But I know that in this respect at least, I’ve made no mistakes. My kids are amazing, accepting individuals. They will not be bullies, and they will not hate others for being who they are meant to be.

As they grow older and head to high school I hope they will take this value system with them and share it with the people they meet. I hope they embrace people who are different, and stand up for those who are treated badly. And I hope that if enough kids like mine go into the world they will create a school environment where bullies have no power, and the only people who are ridiculed are the ones who think it’s okay to hate others for being who they are.

Maybe I’m naive for having such hope, but it is a nice vision for the future, don’t you think?