bert and ernie

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

A Sesame Street writer says that Bert and Ernie are gay. Sesame Street maintains they are not.

It's funny. When I was a kid, I assumed Bert and Ernie were *children*. Things only got complicated when I grew up.

And then there's this:

Sesame Street wrote:“They were created to teach preschoolers that people can be good friends with those who are very different from themselves. Even though they are identified as male characters and possess many human traits and characteristics (as most Sesame Street Muppets do), they remain puppets, and do not have a sexual orientation.”

Does that mean Molly and Abbie aren't girl puppets? I'm pretty sure they have characteristics.

[Tim Moores]

I don't have a strong opinion one way of the other, but reading this and some of the coverage it got, on Vox and elsewhere, a number of things come to mind.

It's what the writer thought. Doesn't mean the producers back then saw it that way, and obviously they don't do so now.

The tweet about "puppets do not have a sexual orientation" is gone now, but that at least was patently incorrect: Grundgetta was Oscar's girlfriend. And the antics of Miss Piggy towards Kermit -admittedly in a show aimed at an older audience- would be considered sexual harassment now.

It's debatable how closely puppet life does or should resemble real life. The Swedish Chef regularly had live animals in his cooking pots, and talking pumpkins, amongst much other stuff that differs from real life. I don't think most kids would mistake that for real events.

Just because two boys (or even men) share a room doesn't mean they're gay. Many brothers share a room growing up, or friends during sleepovers. And a lot more adult non-gay men share a room for financial reasons than apparently the people who think they must be gay care to admit.

When I was a kid, I assumed Bert and Ernie were *children*.

Same here. Romance and sexual orientation came later. I's a show for kids, after all.

[Dave Tolls]

I probably saw Morecambe and Wise around the same time (mid 70s, maybe earlier), and those two shared a bed.
I have always placed Bert and Ernie in the same category...it helped that Wise was a (little) Ern as well.

[Liutauras Vilda]

Sesame Street wrote:“They were created to teach preschoolers that people can be good friends with those who are very different from themselves. Even though they are identified as male characters and possess many human traits and characteristics (as most Sesame Street Muppets do), they remain puppets, and do not have a sexual orientation.”

I don't know if that's because I born and grew up in a small city (15.000 people), or the specifics of my homeland, or the time when I grew up (I'm only 34), but until 16 years old or so (I think) I've never heard even the word "gay". And of course didn't know meaning either. So to come up with such sexual orientation thing would have been even impossible.

[Jan de Boer]

My opinion: We should not bother children with our own political correctness and virtue signalling. Let children be children. They dont even think about seksual orientation at the 'Sesame Street age', which is below 9 years old or so.