Bert and Ernie Gay Petn Sparks 'Same Street' Same-Sex Marriage Debate | Entertament News

Contents:

• ‘SAME STREET’ TRODUC S FIRST MARRIED GAY UPLE, MAKG A BOLD STATEMENT FOR LGBTQ VISIBILY
• BERT AND ERNIE ARE ED A GAY UPLE, 'SAME STREET' WRER CLAIMS
• SAME STREET TRODUC FAY WH TWO GAY DADS DURG PRI MONTH
• 'SAME STREET' FEATUR 2 GAY FATHERS FOR 1ST TIME 51-YEAR HISTORY
• FIRST GAY MARRIED COUPLE INTRODUCED ON ‘SAME STREET’
• SAME STREET ADDS FAY WH TWO GAY FATHERS PRI MONTH EPISO
• BERT AND ERNIE GAY PETN SPARKS 'SAME STREET' SAME-SEX MARRIAGE DEBATE
• BERT AND ERNIE GAY MARRIAGE? SAME STREET SAYS NO
• THE FIGHT OVER SAME STREET’S BERT AND ERNIE AS A GAY UPLE, EXPLAED
• BAKERY REF TO MAKE GAY MARRIAGE CAKE WH ‘SAME STREET’S’ BERT AND ERNIE
• THE NEW YORKER’S GAY MARRIAGE COVER: BERT AND ERNIE
• BERT & ERNIE CELEBRATE GAY MARRIAGE ON THE NEW YORKER'S COVER
• ‘SAME STREET’ INTRODUC FIRST GAY COUPLE SPECIAL PRI MONTH EPISO

‘SAME STREET’ TRODUC S FIRST MARRIED GAY UPLE, MAKG A BOLD STATEMENT FOR LGBTQ VISIBILY

This week, the inic children’s show dropped a very special episo lled “Fay Day, ” troducg two gay dads, Frank and Dave (the brother of Na, who works as a bike store owner on the street), and their dghter, Transcript[MUSIC PLAYING]. 'Same Street' troduc fay wh two gay dads. The episo featured a fay wh two gay dads.

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

"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 TRODUC FAY WH TWO GAY DADS DURG PRI MONTH

In a first for the show and the genre, a married gay uple, wh their dghter are movg to Same Street.

As a gay man wh a hband and two betiful children, I’m so proud of this! Alan Muraoka, who directed the episo exprsed how exced he was for people to see the episo and the pictn of a morn fay who jt happens to be gay. ) *** Same Street troduc married gay uple wh a dghter — Happy to Be Bin’s Ameri!

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

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. 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.

OffOnSame Street Characters Used to Celebrate Gay Marriage Rulg Beloved 'Bert' and 'Ernie' featured on New Yorker ver followg historic Supreme Court 29, 2013ExamedExamedWhat’s next for Rsia?

FIRST GAY MARRIED COUPLE INTRODUCED ON ‘SAME STREET’

"As of Friday morng, at least 4, 391 people had signed on to support the ph for the non-prof PBS program to troduce the issue of homosexualy to children. A er on intified as Heather Davis exprsed support for gay rights, but add, "I dont feel like s right to let ltle kids watch ... Bloggers also took as a ht the large number of gay gut stars om that season, to which Same Street rpond, "We've always reached out to a variety of actors and athlet and celebri to appear on the show, and our programmg has always appealed to adults as much as children.

SAME STREET ADDS FAY WH TWO GAY FATHERS PRI MONTH EPISO

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.

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 .

BERT AND ERNIE GAY PETN SPARKS 'SAME STREET' SAME-SEX MARRIAGE DEBATE

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.

“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.

BERT AND ERNIE GAY MARRIAGE? SAME STREET SAYS NO

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.

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

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. 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.

BAKERY REF TO MAKE GAY MARRIAGE CAKE WH ‘SAME STREET’S’ BERT AND ERNIE

“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. “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.

THE NEW YORKER’S GAY MARRIAGE COVER: BERT AND ERNIE

The ke had been orred, ironilly, as a way to memorate the Internatnal Day Agast Homophobia.

BERT & ERNIE CELEBRATE GAY MARRIAGE ON THE NEW YORKER'S COVER

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. Gay marriage beme legal New York this June, creasg the number of stat the untry to do so to six.

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

Asi om those that are mtg suici, the bulli that facilate the tragedi need to learn that homophobia is NOT okay.

Let Same Street and PBS Kids be a big part savg many worthy pair of puppets has long been mored to be a veiled reprentatn of a gay uple, though the Children's Televisn Workshop has nied that this is the se. The petn echo the msage of the "It Gets Better" project, found 2010 followg the suicis of a number of young gay men, cludg Tyler Clementi, Billy Lus and others.

An edorial the New York Daily News, headled "Folks who want a gay marriage for Bert and Ernie of 'Same Street' need to get over themselv, " went on to say:"Why stop there?