Bert and Ernie Sexual Orientation Controversy

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Overview

Bert and Ernie Sexual Orientation Controversy refers to an online debate over speculation surrounding the sexual orientation and relationship of the Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie, which arose after Sesame Street writer Mark Saltzman claimed the duo were inspired by a real-life intimate relationship between two men.

Background

In July 1969, the pilot episode of Sesame Street was broadcast, which featured two male Muppet roommates named Bert and Ernie. The two characters were depicted as best friends who shared a bedroom in their apartment on 123 Sesame Street. Puppeteers and writers, Frank Oz and Jim Henson, created the characters which were said to be based on their own friendship with one another.^[6] Although Bert and Ernie did not share a bed, viewers still held on to the possibility of an intimate relationship between the two.

In 1994, former Sesame Workshop head, Gary Knell, said that Bert and Ernie “are not gay, they are not straight, they are puppets. They don’t exist below the waist." ^[4]

On June 27th, 2013, The New Yorker's cover featured an illustration of Bert and Ernie cuddling on the couch as
they watched the Supreme Court overturn the Defense of Marriage Act (shown below).^[3]

Many members of the gay community voiced their frustration with Sesame Workshop's refusal to acknowledge a sexual relationship between Bert and Ernie. Many argued that it would be beneficial to portray a same-sex couple on Sesame Street.

In 2011, a petition on Change.org called on Sesame Workshop and PBS to allow the characters to get married.^[7] On August 11th, Sesame Workshop replied with a statement on Facebook^[8] stating:

“Bert and Ernie are best friends. 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.”

Developments

On September 16th, 2018, Sesame Street writer Mark Saltzman, who began writing for the show fifteen years after the characters were introduced, revealed in an interview with Queerty^[2] that Bert and Ernie were analogs for his own intimate relationship with film editor Arnold Glassman.

"And I always felt that without a huge agenda, when I was writing Bert & Ernie, they were [gay]. I didn’t have any other way to contextualize them. The other thing was, more than one person referred to Arnie & I as 'Bert & Ernie.'"

On September 18th, the Sesame Workshop Twitter feed responded to the controversy by claiming that Bert and Ernie don't have a sexual orientation because they are puppets (seen below).^[1] The tweet was subsequently deleted.

The same day the New York Times published statements from Saltzman. “As a writer, you just bring what you know into your work. Somehow, in the uproar, that turned into Bert and Ernie being gay,” he said. “There is a difference.” The New York Times stated that "while [Saltzman] believes that Sesame Street should include a gay couple in its programming, he said it should be done with human characters, not puppets."^[9]

On September 19th, some Twitter users responded negatively to Sesame Workshop's statement (shown below).

Meanwhile, Frank Oz posted several tweets in response to the backlash.^[5]