Are Same Street’s Bert & Ernie gay? A ntroversial history, explaed. - Vox

Contents:

• SAME STREET TRODUC FAY WH TWO GAY DADS DURG PRI MONTH
• SAME STREET INTRODUC FIRST OPENLY GAY CHARACTERS
• SAME STREET ADDS FAY WH TWO GAY FATHERS PRI MONTH EPISO
• THE FIGHT OVER SAME STREET’S BERT AND ERNIE AS A GAY UPLE, EXPLAED
• 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
• 'SAME STREET' ADDS TWO GAY FATHERS TO ITS CAST OF CHARACTERS
• WHY MATTERS THAT BERT AND ERNIE ARE GAY, WHICH THEY AREWHY MATTERS THAT BERT AND ERNIE ARE GAY, WHICH THEY ARE
• ‘SAME STREET’ INTRODUC FIRST GAY COUPLE SPECIAL PRI MONTH EPISO
• 'SAME STREET' FEATUR 2 GAY FATHERS FOR 1ST TIME 51-YEAR HISTORY
• SAME STREET GO GAY: ‘ON OUR STREET, WE ACCEPT ALL…HAPPY PRI MONTH’

SAME STREET TRODUC FAY WH TWO GAY DADS DURG PRI MONTH

'Same Street' troduc fay wh two gay dads. The episo featured a fay wh two gay dads. 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.

SAME STREET INTRODUC FIRST OPENLY GAY CHARACTERS

"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. 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.

SAME STREET ADDS FAY WH TWO GAY FATHERS PRI MONTH EPISO

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!

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

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.

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

“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.

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.

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

“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. 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.

'SAME STREET' ADDS TWO GAY FATHERS TO ITS CAST OF CHARACTERS

“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.

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

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 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.

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

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.

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.

“Same Street” has troduced s first openly gay characters, wh two fathers raisg a young Happened: On June 17, the long-tablished character Na (played by Si Lopez) troduced her brother Dave, his hband Frank and their dghter Mia to the program as part of an episo celebratg Fay Costa and Alex Weisman play Dave and Frank and Olivia Perez plays their dghter Mia, who briefly refers to her parents as “Daddy and Papi.

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

A new episo of “Same Street” troduced a married gay uple, a segment a -director scribed as a “tone” for the inic children’s the episo, which buted durg Pri Month and jt ahead of Father’s Day, the “Same Street” characters are preparg for a celebratn. 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.

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

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.

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. 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.