#Roommates, many of us grew up with “Sesame Street” and its iconic characters in our home.
The show has always celebrated diversity and inclusion, but who knew all this time that Bert and Ernie are actually a gay couple?
Since the show started in 1969, there has always been speculation about the true nature of Bert and Ernie’s relationship and there were also a series of jokes made in popular culture about the iconic pair. Recently, writer #MarkSaltzman, who joined the #SesameStreet team in 1984, told #Queerty in an interview that he wrote Bert and Ernie as a gay couple, according to @TMZ_TV. but a spokesperson for the show responded to the article and told The Blast that Bert and Ernie have always been best friends and that they were created to teach preschoolers that people can be good friends with those who are very different from themselves.
“I remember one time that a column from ‘The San Francisco Chronicle,’ a preschooler in the city turned to mom and asked ‘Are Bert and Ernie lovers?’ That coming from a preschooler was fun, and that got passed around, and everyone had their chuckle and went back to it,” Saltzman said in the Queerty interview.
Saltzman says the couple reflects his own same-sex relationship and is not about pushing an agenda. He also said he based Bert and Ernie on his relationship with film editor Arnold Glassman. In case you were wondering who’s who in the relationship, Saltzman was Ernie and Glassman was Bert.
“I always felt that without a huge agenda, when I was writing Bert and Ernie, they were. I didn’t have any other way to contextualize them. The other thing was, more than one person referred to Arnie and I as ‘Bert and Ernie,’ ” Saltzman said.
Bert and Ernie have shared a basement apartment at 123 Sesame Street for the past 49 years, but the puppets are always shown sleeping in separate beds and matching pajamas. Their chemistry, however, is about playful arguing and bickering and often simulated a real relationship.
Who knew that Bert and Ernie are longtime gay icons for the LGBT community? What are your thoughts, #Roomies?
TSR STAFF: Christina C! @cdelafresh
