On Tuesday the folks behind “Sesame Street” responded to an interview with a former writer who said its iconic characters, Bert and Ernie, are gay. Or, more specifically, Mark Saltzman said he had always “felt” they were gay when he was writing their lines.
Sesame Workshop issued a bungled, glib, and illogical statement claiming that “they remain puppets, and do not have a sexual orientation.”
Here’s a screenshot from the Internet Archive:
NCRM published a piece in response, reminding Sesame Workshop that some Sesame Street characters do have a sexual orientation.
“For example,” we wrote, “Clementine is Forgetful Jones’ girlfriend. And Ingrid and Humphrey are married hoteliers. Also, Mae, Elmo’s mother, is married to Louie.”
Sesame Workshop has now deleted their tweet and come out with a new, revised, updated statement as to why Bert and Ernie are not gay.
At least this time their reasoning is sound and makes sense. Also, it’s far less condescending, so that’s a plus. (And we’d like to think we had something to do with it.)
Meanwhile, Saltzman has clarified his remarks.
“As a writer, you just bring what you know into your work,” he told The New York Times. “Somehow, in the uproar, that turned into Bert and Ernie being gay. There is a difference.”
Of course, Sesame Street does need LGBTQ characters. What’s taking so long?
Image by See-Ming Lee via Flickr and a CC license