Sesame Street dispute: are Bert and Ernie gay?

The debate over popular Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie’s sexual orientation has been reignited, following an interview with a former writer for the show who said the roommate puppets were “a loving couple”.

In an interview with Queerty, former writer Mark Salzman said that he “always felt that without a huge agenda, when I was writing Bert and Ernie, they were [a couple]. I didn’t have any other way to contextualise them”.

Salzman said he loosely based the writing for Bert and Ernie on himself and his partner, film editor Arnold Glassman, drawing on the friction between their own personalities to provide inspiration for the Sesame Street characters.

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However, shortly after Salzman’s interview was published and his comments widely covered in the mainstream media, Sesame Workshop – the organisation behind the television show – issued a statement contradicting Salzman’s claim.

In the statement, Sesame Workshop said Bert and Ernie “do not have a sexual orientation”, adding: “They were created to teach preschoolers that people can be good friends with those who are very different from themselves.”

Speculation over the puppets’ sexual orientation has “long created friction between grown-up Sesame Street fans and the show’s makers”, The Guardian says, adding that Sesame Workshop “shot down” an online petition calling for them to marry in 2011.

The BBC says that Bert and Ernie “have become icons in the gay community over the years”, since first appearing on the show’s pilot episode in 1969.