Sesame Street Says Bert and Ernie Aren’t Gay

Source: Slate

Despite what you and everyone else might think, Sesame Street’s Bert and Ernie aren’t gay, the people behind the show said Thursday in response to an online push for the two puppets to marry.

“Bert and Ernie are best friends,” the Sesame Workshop, the non-profit group responsible for the show, said in a Facebook message. “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.”

The statement comes after Change.org posted a petition online last week asking the show to out Bert and Ernie and to have the iconic puppets wed in a move the group says would teach kids tolerance toward gays and lesbians. As of Thursday afternoon, shortly after the Sesame Workshop issued its statement, the petition had nearly 5,500 signatures.


Read more: http://slatest.slate.com/posts/2011/08/11/pbs_says_bert_and_ernie_aren_t_gay_in_response_to_change_org_pet.html

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Okay. I completely support gay marriage, but this is getting ridiculous. And yes, this was in the news portion of the site, The Slatest.

No offense taken. :-)

But I am not sure that they should get married. Hell, I don't think heteros are smart to get married!

Keep gay marriage and other political hot potatoes out of toddler's programming.

Kids learn intolerance, they aren't born that way. Not saying they should have a special Sesame Street episode about gay marriage, but showing gay characters in relationships would be awesome.

Considering that Ernie and Bert are young children (who are well under the age of 10) could possibly even KNOW what their sexual orientation is? Ernie and Bert are two kids who, despite being very different, are the best of friends. This gay rumor B.S. was started by some asshole who had nothing better to do with his/her time and people--in their infinite gullibility--swallowed it hook, line, and sinker.

O the hysterical, hair pulling allegations that ANY of the characters - Tinky Winky, Bert & Ernie - are gay by the ridiculous right.

What is a issue for me is if they teach married couples to only look like this.

Sesame Street on Marriage Whats in the thought bubbles?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igdWO-IfICk

Burt and Ernie are not public property and are entitled to the same regard any other adult is due.

Roommates. They are characters from Jim Henson's youth.

Just ask the exact same people that think Bert and Ernie are gay.

Doesn't matter to me I love Bert and Ernie and Laverne and Shirley. Wonder what that makes me?

they didn't have a clue.

I can't believe you said that!!!

Ernie Bishop "the fellow who sits all day on his brains in his taxi" and Bert the cop.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJfZaT8ncYk

Their backstory does NOT include a sexual history! There are lots of things that don't have a backstory! First loves, arrests, political activities, genetic diseases! IT'S NOT INCLUDED!


Those kind of things are for entertainment for adults, not educational for kids!



Jeez, do people think that Jim Henson was storyboarding what a freak Ernie is in bed? How Bert had a friend who was killed on the USS Stark? How Cookie Monster is diabetic? How Grover was sexually molested by his uncle?

:banghead:


They're puppets!

Nobody worries about what sort of sex Baby Bear's parents must have had to make him or his little sister. Why can't Bert and Ernie be a couple without people worrying about puppet buttsex?

Bert and Ernie have been "roommates" since 1969. That's more than a little bit gay.

...much like Snoopy. :-)


But yeah, nobody has a problem with thinking about puppet penis going into puppet vagina.



Except maybe the puppeteers. I bet they draw lots to figure out who does those scenes...

:)

I've always perceived them as kids, even sine I was a kid.

... because they were obviously children and they shared a room.

:shrug:

After all, he's uptight and grumpy while Ernie has the mind of a 4 year old.

I never thought they were adults. The show, after all, is for kids. The only adults were the humans.

...hey, it was Sesame Street, you can't take it so seriously.

their hands. Wonder why they don't go after bigots and oppressors (AKA repukes), instead of muppets.

Well said!

Dan Qualye was the Vice President when he complained about liberals because they watched Candice Bergen on "Murphy Brown".
He said her tv character had made comments that he didn't agree with because they sounded like liberal propaganda.
Just another act, so the Republicans could bash "Hollywood liberals".

Ben Qualye is his son, who is now a member of Congress from Arizona.

The Republicans will go after ANY issue from ANY angle, and we've seen them do it countless times.

Is it serious?
No.
Do we care?
No.
Do they care?

YES!!

"the remain puppets, and do not have a sexual orientation"

And I guess Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog don't have an orientation?

Oh well. I'm not surprised. Sesame Street has been shit for years.

At least there's still Rainbow Dash.

"Bigotry."

so says the web.

just look at his mug shot:



evidence that he is with the Taliban:

Ernie seems abusive: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NShgvtEro7I

What's green and smells like ham?

Kermit the Frog's middle finger!!

...how could two puppets who are supposed to represent 6 or 7-year-olds be gay? No child knows their sexual orientation at such a young age. I'm certain some asshole with a teen-age mentality started that assinine rumor and, with the help of the internet, it spread like wildfire to the point that Sesame Street deliberately created Ernie and Bert to "show" kids that alternative lifestyles are acceptable(???).

Ernie and Bert are two children who, despite all of their differences, get along with each other and deeply care about the other's well-being (i.e.--they're BEST FRIENDS). Glad to hear that Sesame Street has finally spoken out about this....it was LONG overdue.


Enjoy the best Ernie and Bert dialogue EVER from 1969.....this is a classic!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRsms1zLnNs

Or is that to throw the landlord, Mr Roper, off?

Of all the things to get DU stirred up, I have to admit I never saw this one coming. I think sometimes I overlook the obvious though, especially when gripped in the thralls of REALLY GOOD DRUGS from a full-mouth extraction.

That said...I don't think there's anything wrong with a pair of gay or lesbian muppets. As many others have posted, several other muppets either have relationships or have 'implied' relationships (ie, being a baby).

But...leave Bert and Ernie out it. Oh, I won't be upset if they were to say they were, other than my own little isolated viewpoint on Bert and Ernie -- a viewpoint that is often overlooked these days. Is either Bert or Ernie really sociable? Think they would be good at 'the game', whether with men OR women? Me neither. Yeah, they've been roomies for years upon years, so that HAS to mean they're gay!

Except...that it doesn't. My best friend and I have been roommates for so long that my family always invites him along to family events, including Christmas...yet they also know that neither of us are gay. It would almost be easier if we were, because we're both horrible at meeting new people. We lead a pretty damn isolated life. Even here in red country, I wouldn't be ashamed to admit I were gay -- if I was. But I'm not. Neither is he.

So make Bert and Ernie gay if you must, or (preferably) use a new pair of muppets for a gay or lesbian couple...but if you DO have to use Bert and Ernie...don't rely on the 'roommate' trope please. There are few enough examples of good, long-time roommates as it is.

Amusing anecdote -- When moving from one city to another once, my friend and I applied at this apartment and the landlady asked if we were gay. When we told her no (remember, Indiana), she denied us the house. Why? "Because two gay guys can keep a house clean, but two regular guys, I'm not sure enough to rent to." I thought it was funny. :)

But the furor over it is ridiculous. OMG Bert and Ernie can't be gay!!! It's part of the Homosexual Agenda!!! Puppets don't have sexuality!!! They're not interested in love or marriage!1!1

Then what the fark was all that crap with Miss Piggy chasing Kermit the Frog for all those years? Was that part of the Heterosexual Agenda? Were they teaching innocent toddlers about SEX? Were parents screaming about interspecies puppet mating? Why is it only when the prospect of gay/lesbian relations comes up that it becomes a "sexual" matter, and an "agenda"?