The gay puppet stars of Or You Could Kiss Me | Theatre | The Guardian

Contents:

• WHY MATTERS THAT BERT AND ERNIE ARE GAY, WHICH THEY AREWHY MATTERS THAT BERT AND ERNIE ARE GAY, WHICH THEY ARE
• SAME STREET TRODUC FAY WH TWO GAY DADS DURG PRI MONTH
• THE GAY PUPPET STARS OF OR YOU COULD KISS ME
• HOW BERT AND ERNIE ULD BE ROLE MOLS FOR ALL THE GAY PUPPETS
• SAME STREET GO GAY: ‘ON OUR STREET, WE ACCEPT ALL…HAPPY PRI MONTH’
• BERT AND ERNIE ARE GAY, SAME STREET WRER SAYS
• OPENLY GAY PUPPETEER HIS ART TO BRG UNRSTANDG TO HIS SMALL HOMETOWN KANSAS
• FRANK OZ WEIGHS ON 'SAME STREET' WRER SAYG BERT AND ERNIE ARE GAY
• PEACHY KEENAN: EVERYONE IS GAY, N YOU BLAME THEM?
• THE GAY PUPPET STARS OF OR YOU COULD KISS ME

WHY MATTERS THAT BERT AND ERNIE ARE GAY, WHICH THEY AREWHY MATTERS THAT BERT AND ERNIE ARE GAY, WHICH THEY ARE

Plenty of Muppets are romantic relatnships, so who r if a uple of obvly gay puppets are gay?

Sce began airg 2013, Steven Universe has featured multiple queer characters and relatnships, cludg a gay weddg (wh a kiss! But not all creators have had the wherewhal or the abily to do that, and the stori behd Adventure Time and Legend of Korra’s now-inic gay moments are of siarly uphill battl wh varyg his “Korrasami is non” post, Korra -creator Bryan Konietzko said Nickeloon had put “lims” on how much of Korra and Asami’s buddg romance was allowed to be picted on screen.

No, thank that so many people’s mds — some of whom sisted that they were no way homophobic, and how dare anyone imply otherwise — immediately went there pats a pretty damng picture of society’s wispread abily to see queerns as anythg other than vulgar and sexual. And their stubborn nial of Bert and Ernie’s upledom spe so many other straight Muppet upl existg, Same Workshop played to exactly the prejudic that Rebec Sugar and other creators like her have worked so hard to subvert: that queer characters don’t belong stori told to pats a damng picture of society’s wispread abily to see queerns as anythg other than vulgar and sexualThe qutn of whether Bert and Ernie “are” actually gay is kd of a different one, but ’s worth addrsg.

SAME STREET TRODUC FAY WH TWO GAY DADS DURG PRI MONTH

Bee if you ignore the fact that blatantly exists to rerce heteronormativy a children’s show, yeah, I gus Same Workshop’s statement uld be terpreted as jt clearg up the Same Street as Saltzman clarified an terview wh the New York Tim today that was fely not done unr prsure om Same Workshop, he never actually said Bert and Ernie were gay. ” The distctn is small, but matters, not least of all bee leav room for plsible niabily on the part of Same Workshop and other, ls forward-thkg members of the team behd Same Street’s inilly gay puppets.

But ’s a cisn supported by homophobia and outdated, rrect views about queerns, which are the only reasons that Bert and Ernie shouldn’t jo the pantheon of officially sanctned Same Street Muppet upl—right next to Osr and beg said, there’s another si to the subjective nature of Saltzman’s refully word terview, and works favor of Same Street’s more progrsive dience, rather than those who would mimize Bert and Ernie’s queerns: Regardls of how and why Bert and Ernie were created, thanks to Saltzman, we now know that for 15 years they were specifilly wrten to be a gay uple, moled after one man’s relatnship wh the love of his life. 'Same Street' troduc fay wh two gay dads. The episo featured a fay wh two gay dads.

THE GAY PUPPET STARS OF OR YOU COULD KISS ME

Gay ventriloquist Wayland Flowers brought his inic puppet, Madame, to life throughout the ’70s and ’80s. Related: Gay dads who adopted 6 siblgs celebrate three years as one big happy fay.

Probg the closeted homosexual, stnchly Republin puppet om Mazeppa Productns' n of the Tony-wng mil. This week I dropped by Christ Church Neighborhood Hoe (CCNH) Old Cy to chat wh Rod, the closeted homo puppet Mazeppa Productns‘ n of Avenue Q.

Handsprg are workg on wh thor, playwright and director Neil Bartlett, whose script follows a gay uple through a lifelong relatnship.

HOW BERT AND ERNIE ULD BE ROLE MOLS FOR ALL THE GAY PUPPETS

"He didn't talk about the obv spectacle of , but the silence of the puppetry, " says also disvered a shared history of gay activism: Bartlett had mpaigned agast Sectn 28, which banned lol thori Bra om "promotg homosexualy"; Kohler and Jon had joed the first Ain Gay Pri march, Johannburg 1990 (an experience they scribe as "very dicey").

"We wanted to al wh gay realy, but for that to be part of the texture rather than the subject.

SAME STREET GO GAY: ‘ON OUR STREET, WE ACCEPT ALL…HAPPY PRI MONTH’

" What Or You Could Kiss Me looks at, says Kohler, is "the untold story gay liv – of people who have stayed together their whole liv". But followg Mark Salzman’s claim that he wrote Bert and Ernie as gay, Same Street workshop issued a swift joykill of a statement, nyg this was the se and thstg the lovg muppets firmly to the back of the closet. Gay fave Spongebob Squarepants always seemed to have a lot more affectn for Patrick than he did that weird unrwater squirrel.

And if you want to go ls ambiguo, see lerally any man om He-Man, cludg Bow om She-Ra: the steroids, the motach, the fur hotpants, the harns: ’s basilly a night out at a leather fally, my all-time favoure gay puppet: the ltle blue worm om Labyrth. Same Street was not the only kids’ show that voiced a msage of support for the LGBT activist–backed “Pri Month, ” which promot the homosexual liftyle and genr-fluidy.

For a long time, LGBTQ activists and punds have sisted tha the two puppet characters are a “gay uple. Bert and Ernie “gay” mors were addrsed 2018 when Same Street Workshop, as well as Muppet creator Frank Oz, nied that Bert and Ernie are “gay.

BERT AND ERNIE ARE GAY, SAME STREET WRER SAYS

She was asked if Bert and Ernie are a “mted gay uple. “You want to thk they’re gay? DROP Disney+: New teen film 'Out' featur openly homosexual ma character!

The Twter hashtag #Spongebobisgay began to trend on Twter after many on social media speculated that SpongeBob SquarePants is ed “gay” for beg clud the June 13 Nickeloon tweet.

OPENLY GAY PUPPETEER HIS ART TO BRG UNRSTANDG TO HIS SMALL HOMETOWN KANSAS

However, the creator of SpongeBob, Stephen Hillenberg, who died 2018, said 2005 that he “never tend” the Spongebob character and his sikick iend Patrick Starfish to be “gay. “We never tend them to be gay. "I always felt that whout a huge agenda, when I was wrg Bert and Ernie, they were (gay), " Mark Saltzman, who worked for the prchooler program for 15 years, told Queerty an terview.

Mark Saltzman was asked if Bert & Ernie are gay.

FRANK OZ WEIGHS ON 'SAME STREET' WRER SAYG BERT AND ERNIE ARE GAY

Why the need to fe people as only gay? There's much more to a human beg than jt straightns or gayns.

PEACHY KEENAN: EVERYONE IS GAY, N YOU BLAME THEM?

"The speculatn about Bert and Ernie's relatnship is not 2013, the New Yorker suggted the nature of their relatnship might be romantic by g a silhouette of characters their likens on the ver about the Supreme Court lg on gay years earlier, a petn was circulated urgg the pair to marry.

The New Yorker ver, njunctn wh the two historic SCOTUS gay rights lgs of 2013 referenced the mor of Bert and Ernie's relatnship. LGBT culture scrib the social paradigm by which lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and queer (LGBTQ) dividuals sometim intify. Celebrated morn culture as "LGBT pri" (sometim abbreviated simply as "pri") is the celebratn and promotn of the self-affirmatn, digny, equaly, and creased visibily of lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) people as a social group.

THE GAY PUPPET STARS OF OR YOU COULD KISS ME

Rudy acknowledg a picture of a male, homosexual uple, by untg the two daddi the photo. Miss Piggy's "snout-out to the gays" Out. Miss Piggy gave a "snout-out to the gays" the November 2011 issue of Out, a popular gay and lbian liftyle magaze; Piggy shared ten very brief, personal not on her nnectn wh the gay muny.

Miss Piggy also appeared as a gut at a fundraisg event December 2011 for The Trevor Project, a non-prof anizatn, foced on suici preventn efforts among lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and qutng (LGBTQ) youth. Piggy, herself beg a drag performance, has been lled a gay in; the pig mented on the fact a 2014 terview statg: "I love beg anybody's in. " (a phemism for a gay man).

In the Muppets Now episo "Due Date, " openly gay drag queen RuPl gut stars, and is referred to wh both he/him and genrntral they/them pronouns by the characters throughout their segment together. On October 8, 2021, promotn of Muppets Hnted Mansn, Miss Piggy was terviewed for LGBTQ+ outlet Queerty, talkg about Kerm and Piggy dog drag the film, her huge gay followg, and potential body image issu. In 1986, Jim Henson was asked by reporter Alan Neff if any of the Muppets were gay.