11 times Mr Ratburn was queer AF

Hey! It’s a wonderful kind of day! Mr Ratburn is gay!


Mr Ratburn, our tough-love, cake-loving vermin teacher from Arthur is gay!

In the premiere of Season 22, Nigel Ratburn both came out and got married to another male character, leaving us all believing in happy endings.

The show holds a special place among Millennials who grew up with Arthur, Buster, Muffy, Brain, Francine and the rest of the gang, still spawning quizzes to see which character is most like you and reimaginings of what the Lakewood Elementary School crew would look like as hipsters.

Among the Twitter celebrations by now-grown-up fans celebrating the newlyweds are reactions from folks who always knew Mr Ratburn was gay.

Here’s a list of a few moments where it was glaringly obvious that Mr Ratburn was the queer hero we needed.

This childhood photo proving he had better taste than us

His band, The Ratburn Rats

His love of musicals

His sister Patty Ratburn, played by Jane Lynch

That booty, tho

His living room is basically the workroom from RuPaul’s Drag Race

His love of tall, phallic-shaped cakes

 

There was actually an episode called “Mr Ratburn’s Secret Identity”

His T-shirt, which basically tells us he’s into puppy play

He loves leggings and he ain’t afraid to show it!

This moment where he was probably listening to Lizzo and feeling himself

All photos courtesy of PBS.

Eternity Martis is an award-winning journalist and editor who has worked at CBC, CTV and Xtra Magazine. She is the author of the bestselling 2020 memoir They Said This Would Be Fun: Race, Campus Life, and Growing Up, the course developer/instructor of "Reporting on Race: Black Communities in the Media" at Ryerson University and UBC's 2021 Journalist-in-Residence.

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