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The New York-area<\/span> PBS station WNET has scrubbed its archives of at least three educational TV episodes that discuss transgender identity and drag expression, The Intercept has learned, as Congress and the Trump administration target public broadcasters with attempts to strip their funding.<\/p>\n The station\u2019s educational program \u201cLet\u2019s Learn\u201d became an object of ire for the House Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency this spring over the 2021 episode \u201cThe Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish,\u201d in which the drag queen and children\u2019s author Lil Miss Hot Mess<\/a> sings about drag performance to the tune of \u201cThe Wheels on the Bus.\u201d The subcommittee\u2019s chair, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., opened<\/a> the \u201cAnti-American Airwaves\u201d hearing in March by claiming that \u201cPBS News is not just left-leaning, but it actively uses taxpayer funds to push some of the most radical, left positions like featuring a drag queen on the show\u201d and calling Lil Miss Hot Mess a \u201cchild predator\u201d and a \u201cmonster.\u201d<\/p>\n Far from defending the programming, PBS CEO Paula Kerger distanced the broadcaster from the show.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe drag queen was actually not on any of our kids\u2019 shows,\u201d she said, claiming the episode made it to the PBS website by mistake and had already been removed. PBS followed up with a letter<\/a> that said it had \u201cremoved all remaining references to the Episode\u201d online on March 26, 2025.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n But it wasn\u2019t just PBS: The New York member station that produces \u201cLet\u2019s Learn\u201d \u2014 which had stood by the episode under scrutiny in previous years \u2014\u00a0then quietly removed the episode across its platforms, according to an Intercept analysis. WNET also erased two other episodes about a children\u2019s book featuring a a transgender protagonist, the analysis shows.<\/p>\n WNET did not respond to requests for comment. A PBS spokesperson reiterated Kerger\u2019s claim that the episode was uploaded by mistake and said its removal was unrelated to the current political climate, but did not respond to questions about why over 250 other \u201cLet\u2019s Learn\u201d episodes are still available for viewing<\/a> on the official PBS website.<\/p>\n Public broadcasting was an object of U.S. conservative wrath for decades before the Trump administration. But as the current government has intensified its attacks, PBS has engaged in other recent examples of self-censorship. PBS removed a scene<\/a> in which Art Spiegelman discusses an anti-Trump cartoon from a documentary about the artist, and it pulled a gaming documentary with transgender themes from planned syndication \u2014 then relisted it after The Atlantic asked about<\/a> the deletion. But the erasure of WNET\u2019s programming on drag and transgender culture shows the effects reaching a local level, where the station that produced the episodes elected to take them down \u2014 despite previously having defended them.<\/p>\n After premiering in the spring of 2021, \u201cThe Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish\u201d quickly garnered social media outrage and news<\/a> coverage. Following the first round of backlash, WNET added a disclaimer on its YouTube channel<\/a> and the \u201cLet\u2019s Learn\u201d website<\/a>, noting that the series is \u201cnot funded or distributed by PBS.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n But at the time, WNET defended the episode, telling Fox News that Let\u2019s Learn \u201cstrives to incorporate themes that explore diversity and promote inclusivity, which are relevant to education and society. Drag is a performance art that can inspire creative thinking and the questioning of stereotypes.\u201d<\/p>\n The outrage didn\u2019t go away: Two years later, Oklahoma\u2019s Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt explicitly mentioned<\/a> the episode when he vetoed a bill to extend funding for his state\u2019s PBS station.\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite all the attention, WNET continued to make the episode available \u2014 until this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n An Intercept analysis showed that following the DOGE hearing, WNET quietly removed all mentions of the episode across its platforms.\u00a0<\/p>\n The original episode page<\/a> now displays a generic error message, reading \u201cOops! The page you are looking for was not found.\u201d \u201cThe Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish\u201d no longer appears in a list of episode titles, and the video is listed<\/a> as private on the WNET Education YouTube channel. WNET also instructed<\/a> search engines not to list the episode\u2019s old webpage.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n