Why matters that Bert and Ernie are gay, which they are - The Verge

Contents:

• 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
• FRANK OZ WEIGHS ON 'SAME STREET' WRER SAYG BERT AND ERNIE ARE GAY
• 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
• ARE BERT AND ERNIE GAY? ‘SAME STREET’ WRER SAYS HIS COMMENTS WERE MISTERPRETED
• THE FIGHT OVER SAME STREET’S BERT AND ERNIE AS A GAY UPLE, EXPLAED
• ACTUALLY, I'M THE ONE WHO SAID BERT AND ERNIE ARE GAY
• ARE BERT AND ERNIE A GAY UPLE? FALLY, THE ANSWER

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

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. “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.

Frank Oz is voice of dozens of puppets and muppets as one of Jim Henson's earlit llaborators — and now the storied puppeteer is lendg his voice to the bate over whether or not "Same Street" characters Bert and Ernie are gay. Mark Saltzman was asked if Bert & Ernie are gay.

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

Why the need to fe people as only gay?

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

There's much more to a human beg than jt straightns or gayns. "Director/producer/puppeteer Frank Oz pos for a portra at the "Muppet Guys Talkg - Secrets Behd the Show the Whole World Watched" at the 2017 SXSW Wkelmeyer / Getty Imag for SXSW fileOz ntued to go back-and-forth wh people rpondg to his tweet who asked why the lorful puppets uldn't be gay. Bert and Ernie were created to be bt iends, and to teach young children that people n get along wh those who are very different om themselv, " the workshop said a statement emailed to NBC ntued to take to Twter, tellg followers he felt he uldn't ll Bert and Ernie gay bee his md wasn't asked why he felt the need to intify the puppets as "not gay, " Oz replied: "The same need I would feel if Bert were intified as a lebacker for the Colts.

Next time I would be very terted to know: If Bert and Ernie were ed gay, would they be different than they are now? It has long been whispered that Same Street's Bert and Ernie are gay.

ARE BERT AND ERNIE GAY?

They're not even homosexual (if ed 's possible for mere puppets to be sexual). The shift the standard mor of gayns to clu s subjects actually gettg married is, I thk, a reflectn of the tim.

Joseph Chambers attempted to get the puppets banned unr a ltle-ed anti-gay law the ep South.

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

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. Though 's impossible to p down where the "Bert and Ernie are gay" mor began, one potential source is The Real Thg, a 1980 Doubleday book by Kurt Anrsen.

ARE BERT AND ERNIE GAY? ‘SAME STREET’ WRER SAYS HIS COMMENTS WERE MISTERPRETED

In this book (which purports to be "A gui to separatg the genue om the ersatz, the men om the boys, and the wheat om the chaff"), Anrsen mak the whimsil claim that among homosexuals, Bert and Ernie are "the Real Thg":. Bert and Ernie nduct themselv the same lovg, discreet way that lns of gay men, women and hand puppets do.

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.

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

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. 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.

ACTUALLY, I'M THE ONE WHO SAID BERT AND ERNIE ARE GAY

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. For s, we’ve wonred: Are Bert and Ernie gay?

The inic “Same Street” duo live together, share a bedroom and don’t seem shy about takg a bath ont of each other, so …The recurrg qutn shot back to our nscns this week after a former “Same Street” wrer who is gay said an terview that he wrote Bert and Ernie as a “lovg uple, ” takg spiratn om his own relatnship wh his longtime partner.

“I always felt that whout a huge agenda, when I was wrg Bert and Ernie, they were” gay, the wrer, Mark Saltzman, said an terview wh Queerty, a gay news and entertament se. “Somehow, the uproar, that turned to Bert and Ernie beg gay, ” he said. While he believ that “Same Street” should clu a gay uple s programmg, he said should be done wh human characters, not for Bert and Ernie, “they are two guys who love each other, ” Mr.

ARE BERT AND ERNIE A GAY UPLE? FALLY, THE ANSWER

”Frank Oz, who helped create Bert and Ernie nearly a half century ago, said on Twter on Tuday that the characters were not ments received phback om those who shared the importance of havg gay and lbian reprentatn on televisn.

One person wrote on Twter that “havg the flexibily to see them” as gay “was good for me, and the more voic I see CONFIRMING that they DEFINITELY ARE NOT is what mak me sad.