Same Street Rponds to Claims That Bert and Ernie Are Gay | Time

Contents:

• SAME STREET TRODUC FAY WH TWO GAY DADS DURG PRI MONTH
• SAME STREET SAYS BERT AND ERNIE 'DON'T HAVE A SEXUAL ORIENTATN' AFTER LONGTIME WRER CLAIMS THEY'RE GAY
• BERT AND ERNIE ARE ED A GAY UPLE, 'SAME STREET' WRER CLAIMS
• THE FIGHT OVER SAME STREET’S BERT AND ERNIE AS A GAY UPLE, EXPLAED
• 'SAME STREET' FEATUR 2 GAY FATHERS FOR 1ST TIME 51-YEAR HISTORY
• SAME STREET INTRODUC FIRST OPENLY GAY CHARACTERS
• SAME STREET GO GAY: ‘ON OUR STREET, WE ACCEPT ALL…HAPPY PRI MONTH’
• PRI MONTH: ‘SAME STREET’ INTRODUC GAY MALE COUPLE FOR ‘FAY DAY’
• SAME STREET ADDS FAY WH TWO GAY FATHERS PRI MONTH EPISO
• ‘SAME STREET’ INTRODUC FIRST GAY COUPLE SPECIAL PRI MONTH EPISO
• SAME STREET WEL THE SHOW'S FIRST GAY COUPLE
• ‘SAME STREET’ CLUS GAY MARRIED UPLE FOR FIRST TIME SHOW’S 51 YEARS
• ‘SAME STREET’ TRODUC FAY WH TWO GAY DADS
• SAME STREET WRER SAYS BERT AND ERNIE ARE GAY, SAME WORKSHOP DISAGRE
• ARE BERT AND ERNIE GAY?
• WHY MATTERS THAT BERT AND ERNIE ARE GAY, WHICH THEY AREWHY MATTERS THAT BERT AND ERNIE ARE GAY, WHICH THEY ARE
• ‘SAME STREET’ TAK A BIG LEAP FOR LGBTQ VISIBILY, TRODUC GAY DADS WH A DGHTER

SAME STREET TRODUC FAY WH TWO GAY DADS DURG PRI MONTH

'Same Street' troduc fay wh two gay dads.

SAME STREET SAYS BERT AND ERNIE 'DON'T HAVE A SEXUAL ORIENTATN' AFTER LONGTIME WRER CLAIMS THEY'RE GAY

The episo featured a fay wh two gay dads. A former wrer for Same Street said a recent terview that he nsired Bert and Ernie to be gay — but the show rebutted this claim, sayg the puppets “do not have a sexual orientatn.

BERT AND ERNIE ARE ED A GAY UPLE, 'SAME STREET' WRER CLAIMS

“I always felt that whout a huge agenda, when I was wrg Bert & Ernie, they were [gay], ” Saltzman said.

’ But those two… you had characters that appealed to a gay dience. Are Bert and Ernie gay? Same Street has always had one nsistent official answer (no, they’re not), but that hasn’t stopped the two famo felt roommat om beg gay ins and occupyg a unique role the queer rights movement.

THE FIGHT OVER SAME STREET’S BERT AND ERNIE AS A GAY UPLE, EXPLAED

Controversy over their perceived homosexualy has raged termtently for s, spearhead by both alli and adversari — and a new flare-up shows that ’s not gog away anytime soon. The official negatn was echoed by puppetmaster Frank Oz, who origally performed Bert oppose Jim Henson as Ernie, and who stated on Twter that “They’re not [gay], of urse. For those queer fans lookg for narrative subtext, there’s plenty to be found the personas of Bert and Ernie; after all, there’s a reason we as a culture have been discsg their relatnship for s, a reason that they ntue to be held up as gay ins across generatns — and a reason people have spent s beg hoppg mad about .

It’s all pretty gay! Among homosexuals, Bert and Ernie of Same Street are the real thg. Bert and Ernie nduct themselv the same lovg, discreet way that lns of gay men, women and hand puppets do.

'SAME STREET' FEATUR 2 GAY FATHERS FOR 1ST TIME 51-YEAR HISTORY

“I don’t believe there was much public discsn, ser or otherwise, about the crypto-gayns of The Odd Couple the 1960s and ’70s, ” he wrote an email.

“That kd of disurse only appeared ncerng work about straight characters by gay wrers — most famoly, whether Who’s Aaid of Virgia Woolf was somehow ‘really’ about a gay uple, ” he add. “In 1980, when I published my Bert & Ernie thg, there were still no out gay characters mass media. The piece of the zegeist I was rpondg to was, jt a after Stonewall (which BTW occurred a few months before Same Street premiered) and the first pri march, the hly ‘normalized’ nature of out gayns plac like New York.

SAME STREET INTRODUC FIRST OPENLY GAY CHARACTERS

The nversatn between Saltzman and terviewer Reddish is illumatg and poignant, equently returng to Saltzman’s experience as a young gay man the early ’80s, one fdg his way out of the closet jt as the AIDS epimic was begng to be wily unrstood. “I n remember pchg to the tn partment, the gatekeepers of the curriculum, gay ntent, jt to get off my nscience. But there was one place Saltzman was able to sert his own lived experience as a gay man to his wrg, and that was through the personas of Bert and Ernie.

“There is a difference, ” he told the Tim, between “brg[g] what you know to your work” and “Bert and Ernie beg gay. But ’s also important to note that if Saltzman’s origal ment to Queerty that “when I was wrg Bert & Ernie, they were” lovers was te, seems to have been an impulse born out of the ep existential crisis of beg gay durg the AIDS epimic.

It was an era when an entire culture was unr attack — if not om the disease directly, then om the many homophobic parameters that arguably worsened the spe of the tragedy. In that era, primarily due to homophobic agators, Bert and Ernie beme perpetually discsed parts of the so-lled “gay agenda. In the ’90s, Bert and Ernie were drafted to the “homosexual agenda.

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

In the ’90s, Bert and Ernie beme viewed by some as threateng elements of a homosexual liftyle that was perceived as encroachg upon a mastream heteronormative culture. In 1993, the New Voice, a regnal gay newspaper, reported that Tupelo, Mississippi, gay panic had spng up over the appearance of Bert and Ernie as part of a Same Street tour stop at a lol arena. “Tupelo lism officials say they’ve been bombard wh ncerned parents wantg to know if two of the fictnal characters are gay, ” the newspaper noted.

PRI MONTH: ‘SAME STREET’ INTRODUC GAY MALE COUPLE FOR ‘FAY DAY’

“Officials say mors that Same Street’s Bert and Ernie characters are supposedly portrayg a homosexual uple have circulated across the untry. If this isn’t meant to reprent a homosexual unn, I n’t image what ’s supposed to reprent.

“Bert and Ernie, who’ve been on Same Street for 25 years, do not portray a gay uple, and there are no plans for them to do so the future, ” reads a statement om 1993 llected by Snop. In 2000, one wrer displayed Bert and Ernie dolls at his same-sex weddg as a repudiatn of the homophobic enzy around the characters; 2002, the Same Street Workshop stopped circulatn of a cult die film lled Ernt and Bertram that rest the characters as gay. In 2010, discsn of the queerg of the Same Street characters was fully mastream, prompted part by a tweet om the official Same Street acunt that read to some as nfirmatn of Bert’s homosexualy.

SAME STREET ADDS FAY WH TWO GAY FATHERS PRI MONTH EPISO

The ke had been orred, ironilly, as a way to memorate the Internatnal Day Agast Homophobia. Given that Bert and Ernie have been repeatedly drafted to the gay agenda by homophob, ’s a matter of, well, pri, for queer fans to subversively view them as a joyo reprentatn of a posive queer relatnship — which is why Same Street’s nial on Tuday stck many people as homophobic.

As long as Bert and Ernie uld be queer, they will ntue to enrage homophob who seek to e them to imply a gay nspiracy to filtrate mastream pop culture. "Same Street" is markg Pri Month by showg a type of fay that has never been seen the 51-year history of the inic children's televisn show shared an episo last week lled "Fay Day" that featur a married gay uple of two dads wh their dghter. The show also answered a qutn about long-time characters and roommat Bert and Ernie, sayg 2018 that they are not gay, they are "bt iends.

‘SAME STREET’ INTRODUC FIRST GAY COUPLE SPECIAL PRI MONTH EPISO

For years, dienc have bated whether Bert and Ernie are Same Street's rint gay uple.

But their iendship has been the subject of much bate over the years and many speculated that the two are fact a gay uple. Why People Thk Bert and Ernie Are a Gay Couple.

SAME STREET WEL THE SHOW'S FIRST GAY COUPLE

The mors led to a number of public sentments om Same Workshop statg that they are not a gay uple, but are simply bt iends. Mark Saltzman, ex-wrer for Same Street, alleged that Bert and Ernie were based on his timate gay relatnship wh a worker — but should be noted that Saltzman is not the creator of Bert and Ernie. Another reason the bate has gone on so long is om the unrlyg homophobia that l our society and, up until recently, domated the media.

People fear what they don't unrstand, and many the LGBTQ+ muny believe that those who ny that Bert and Ernie may be a uple are beg homophobic, takg issue wh the implied queerns. 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.

‘SAME STREET’ CLUS GAY MARRIED UPLE FOR FIRST TIME SHOW’S 51 YEARS

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.

‘SAME STREET’ TRODUC FAY WH TWO GAY DADS

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. Same Street aired s “Fay Day” episo — which featured two gay dads — on WarnerMedia’s HBO Max and YouTube this Thursday.

SAME STREET WRER SAYS BERT AND ERNIE ARE GAY, SAME WORKSHOP DISAGRE

The Same Street episo featurg gay dads arriv durg Pri Month, which actor Alan Muraoka — known as Alan on the show — acknowledged a Facebook post.

ARE BERT AND ERNIE GAY?

Same Street add two gay characters a recent episo of the children's entertament episo, which aired on HBOMax Thursday, troduced viewers to Na's brother Dave, his hband Frank, and their dghter Mia as the characters celebrated "Fay Day. "Alan Muraoka, who -directed the episo and also plays an eponymo store owner on the show, celebrated the addn of the gay characters on Facebook, wrg that he was "honored and humbled" to have directed the "tone" episo of the program.

"BLUE'S CLUES SONG SHOWS DRAG QUEEN TEACHING CHILDREN ABOUT GAY, TRANSGENDER, AND NONBINARY CHARACTERSGay and lbian advot, cludg Sarah Kate Ellis, the print and CEO of GLAAD, celebrated the new addns, wrg that Frank and Dave "are the latt characters an unniable trend of cln across kids & fay programmg, one that allows lns of proud LGBTQ parents, and our children, to fally get to see fai like ours reflected on TV.

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

Pixar released a stg ll for a child actor who “n thentilly portray a 14-year-old transgenr girl, ” and Blue's Clu released an episo that featur a drag queen sgg to children about gay, transgenr, and nonbary Street has expand s characters to clu people and Muppets of all backgrounds, cludg homels characters, those stgglg wh food secury, and a puppet wh an rcerated parent. "Washgton Examer ViosTags: News, TV, Gay Marriage, Same Sex Marriage, LGBT, HBOOrigal Author: Carly Ortiz-LytleOrigal Lotn: Same Street adds fay wh two gay fathers Pri Month episo.

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Red, Whe and Royal Blue’ on Amazon Prime Vio, a Charmgly Star-Crossed Gay Rom-Com. The long-nng children’s program troduced a fay wh two gay dads for the first time ever on s June 18 episo, Yahoo Entertament reports.

But long before 2017, Same Street was featurg a famo gay uple.

‘SAME STREET’ TAK A BIG LEAP FOR LGBTQ VISIBILY, TRODUC GAY DADS WH A DGHTER

Same Street celebrat Pri Month by troducg s first married gay uple, Dave and Frank, durg the show's Fay Day episo.