Sesame Street Sets Record Straight on Bert & Ernie Gay Rumors: They Are Puppets

Creators of the children’s show Sesame Street released a statement today denying that the characters Bert and Ernie are gay lovers after a former writer for the program made the claim.

“As we have always said, 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,” Sesame Street stated in a tweet. “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.”

Please see our statement below regarding Bert and Ernie. pic.twitter.com/6r2j0XrKYu

— Sesame Workshop (@SesameWorkshop) September 18, 2018

Mark Saltzman, one of the show’s former writers, claims otherwise, however.

“I remember one time that a column from The San Francisco Chronicle, a preschooler in the city turned to mom and asked ‘are Bert & Ernie lovers?’ And that, coming from a preschooler was fun,”  Saltzman said in an interview with the LGBT outlet Queerty. “And that got passed around, and everyone had their chuckle and went back to it. And I always felt that without a huge agenda, when I was writing Bert & Ernie, they were. I didn’t have any other way to contextualize them.”

“I always felt that without a huge agenda, when I was writing Bert & Ernie, they were. I didn’t have any other way to contextualize them,” he continued. “I don’t think I’d know how else to write them, but as a loving couple.”

[image via screengrab]

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