Penn State's Public Broadcasting station will air an episode of a children's cartoon show canceled by Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and criticized by Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings for featuring same-sex parents.

Penn State's station, WPSX-TV, will air the show Postcards from Buster, which faced controversy after it produced an episode called "Sugartime!" In the episode, a child shows a picture to the main character, a white rabbit named Buster, and introduces one woman as her mom and the other as her step-mom.

"Buster says, 'That's a lot of moms,' and that's about it," Greg Petersen, director of programming services for WPSX-TV, said. "In no way did it beat anyone over the head about [the issue]. However, I understand that people would be sensitive to this type of material being broached."

On Jan. 25, PBS President and Chief Executive Officer Pat Mitchell received a letter from Spellings criticizing PBS for spending public money on a cartoon with a reference to lesbian characters.

In her first act as secretary of education, Spellings said the show, which is partially funded by the federal Ready-to-Learn program, did not fulfill the intent Congress had in mind for programming.

Shortly after receiving the letter, PBS canceled the episode.

However, since the show's producer, WGBH, a Boston public television station, sent it to other public stations, Penn State's WPSX-TV was able to review the show and decide how to handle it.

Petersen said WPSX-TV felt the episode stayed true to Postcards from Buster's overall mission, which is to look at cultural diversity in the United States by introducing Buster to people with different backgrounds, ethnicities and religions.

Rather than airing it during its regular time, WPSX-TV has decided to show the cartoon within the station's Pennsylvania Inside Out, a live call-in public affairs discussion series airing Tuesday nights. The "Sugartime!" episode of Postcards from Buster will air at 7 p.m. on March 29.

The half-hour cartoon will be followed by a discussion where viewers can phone in with comments and questions to a panel of guest experts who are still to be determined.

"We wanted to put it in context," Petersen said. "This is a very appropriate venue for that type of thing. [We're] letting people know it's going to be on at a certain time so they can tape it, watch with their children, or not watch it.

"I think that's a unique type of thing for public broadcasting to do -- to encourage dialogue in the community that it serves," he said.

Allison Subasic, director of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender student development, said she is glad WPSX-TV is giving people an opportunity to talk about the issue.

"It's important to show the diversity of American families," she said. "I don't think a cartoon character mentioning she has two mommies is detrimental. It's reality for a lot of families."

Education professor Paul Begley said television pales in comparison to the type of access people have with the Internet.

"Speaking as a father, I've always drawn the line between accepting and recognizing alternate lifestyles and going to the extent of promoting them," Begley said. "But my preference is that in the media ... alternative lifestyles should be recognized."

Carl Derk, a representative from Christians in Action, said he finds it difficult to accept a cartoon show that promotes the idea of same-sex marriage, but feels the follow-up discussion would be fine.

"A discussion-type format would be good so that parents will be able to express themselves and garner other ideas so they can weigh them out," Derk said.

--The Associated Press contributed to this article