All The Best Tweets About The Whole Bert And Ernie Being A Gay Couple Thing

For everyone who grew up watching Sesame Street, you would have at one point in your childhood suspected that Bert and Ernie were more than just best friends. The iconic duo who brought us much laughter and bickering are never seen without each other, and even live in the same apartment. They even share the same Facebook page, which they use to keep each other and the rest of their fans updated.

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A former writer of the show, Mark Saltzman, gave an exclusive interview to Queerty a few days ago, where he revealed that he wrote the pair as a “loving couple”. In fact, Bert and Ernie’s dynamics were based on his own relationship with film editor Arnold Glassman.

And there you have it, straight from the writer’s words! The debate of whether Bert and Ernie were actually in a relationship has finally been answered. We also don’t really think it’s a coincidence the pair appeared on The New Yorker cover in 2013 shortly after the US Supreme Court legalised gay marriage across the country.

A few days after Saltzman’s interview that nearly broke the online Sesame Street community, Sesame Workshop has posted their own statement, who doesn’t want us to believe that two of their puppets are in a gay relationship.

Sesame Workshop, who is behind the hit children’s show Sesame Street has stepped up to reiterate their longtime stance that Bert and Ernie are just friends. Best friends, at best. Despite being “identified as male”, Bert and Ernie are just friends who “do not have a sexual orientation”. This then sparked up a  controversial discussion that Sesame Street only supports heterosexual relationships, like the Count who has been spotted with various girlfriends.

Count and Countess

Sesame Workshop then followed with another statement, where they said that they are all about inclusion and acceptance, just not when it comes to LGBT issues it seems.

Today (18 Sept), Mark Saltzman has just told the New York Times that his words were misinterpreted by the internet and he did not mean to say that the pair are “officially together”. While he did say that Bert and Ernie was inspired by his own personal romantic relationship, the writer confirmed that he meant that Bert and Ernie were just two opposite characters who loved each other. “Somehow, in the uproar, that turned into Bert and Ernie being gay,” he said. “There is a difference.”

Well, we’re not sure what triggered the sudden change in opinion as Saltzman was quoted on Queerty saying, “I always felt that without a huge agenda, when I was writing Bert & Ernie, they were” in response to the question if Bert and Ernie are lovers.

Confused yet?

However you interpreted Mark Saltzman’s comments about Bert and Ernie, here’s what the rest of the online world has to say about it.

While the internet is fighting over whether Muppets deserve to be in a relationship regardless of their gender orientations, our own online community is locked in a struggle with our own LGBT laws, specifically Section 377A.