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

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" 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.

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

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. 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. 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. 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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

“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. 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.

SAME STREET INTRODUC FIRST OPENLY GAY CHARACTERS

“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.

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

“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.

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

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.

SAME STREET ADDS FAY WH TWO GAY FATHERS PRI MONTH EPISO

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.

‘SAME STREET’ TRODUC FAY WH TWO GAY DADS

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

“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.

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

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. 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” celebrated Pri Month by troducg s first gay married uple to the show. This was the first time the 51-year history of “Same Street” that a gay married uple was clud a storyle.