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Nickelodeon pushes ahead with same-sex parenting special

The Associated Press
Thursday June 20, 2002

NEW YORK — Nickelodeon is going ahead with a children’s special about same-sex parents, despite receiving so many e-mails that the network had to create a separate address to avoid a computer crash. 

The half-hour report, produced by Linda Ellerbee and featuring Rosie O’Donnell, includes comments from the Rev. Jerry Falwell — who later joined conservative activists in urging Nickelodeon not to air it. 

The network received 100,000 e-mails and phone calls to protest the program, set to air at 9 p.m. EDT Tuesday. 

The Washington-based Traditional Values Coalition has spearheaded the campaign against “Nick News Special Edition: My Family is Different,” sight unseen. 

“It is a cover for promoting homosexuality for kids,” said Andrea Lafferty, the coalition’s executive director. 

Nickelodeon said that’s not so. Ellerbee, in the show’s introduction, says, “The following program is about tolerance ... It is not about sex. It does not tell you what to think.”