(AgapePress) - A pro-family organization is blasting the decision by the producers of Sesame Street to add an HIV-infected Muppet character to one of its fall programs.

At last week's international AIDS conference in Barcelona, producers of the long-time children's series on PBS announced they are planning to introduce an HIV-positive Muppet on the South African version of the program. They say the character is slated to be a five-year-old orphan who will move in with a human family after her mother dies. The motivation behind the move, they say, is to provide accurate education about the HIV virus and AIDS to children between the ages of 3 and 7, the show's target audience.

News reports say while there are no plans to introduce an HIV-positive character on the U.S. version of Sesame Street, producers are apparently talking about it. Homosexual activists in the U.S. would like to see that happen. A representative of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation told PlanetOut "it would do a lot of good," while a program coordinator for the Gay Men's Health Crisis in New York says because of the rising incidence of HIV infections among young adults and teens, "it's beneficial for young people to find out at an early age what it means to be HIV-positive."

Ed Vitagliano is director of research for the American Family Association. He says homosexual activists are clearly using Sesame Street as a way to push their way of life on young children. "They are seriously targeting children with a message that [says] 'gay is okay'," he says. "For Sesame Street to have a character with HIV, which in this country at least most people connect with the homosexual community, is just another way of trying to normalize that lifestyle."

The researcher believes homosexual activists will stop at nothing to push their way of life on young people. "It is certainly about the homosexual community trying to get that community in peoples' minds at a very young age, as children, to be portrayed as victims," Vitagliano says. "We just feel that it's wrong to try to pull that wool over the eyes of adults -- but to do it to children is just a terrible thing, but I'm afraid we're going to see more and more of that."

Vitagliano says comments from the show's producers that the HIV-positive character has nothing to do with sex is nothing but a smokescreen.

Think Twice
A group of lawmakers on Capitol Hill are also concerned about the plans for an HIV-positive Muppet on Sesame Street. According to Variety, six Republican members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce -- the panel that oversees the budget for PBS parent Corporation for Public Broadcasting -- have put PBS on notice that it should think twice before bringing the new character to the American version of the program.

In a letter sent Friday to PBS president Pat Mitchell, committee chairman Billy Tauzin of Louisiana noted that millions of parents have come to rely upon the television network to air only age and culturally appropriate programs. "While it is important to teach children in an age-appropriate manner about compassion for those who contract certain diseases, we would like to inquire as to whether there is other PBS programming, aimed at an older age group, which may be more suitable for such sensitive messages," the letter read.

Those joining Tauzin in signing the letter were Republican congressmen Chip Pickering of Mississippi, Fred Upton of Michigan, Joe Barton of Texas, Richard Burr of North Carolina, and Cliff Stearns of Florida.

The signatories of the letter also want to know if PBS plans to introduce an HIV-positive Muppet in the U.S., and any role corporate underwriters might play in the decision-making process. The committee has given Mitchell until the end of the week to answer several questions concerning the announced move.