‘They are two guys who love each other’: Sesame Street writer retracts claim Bert and Ernie are gay

A former Sesame Street writer appears to be backtracking on comments he made earlier this week suggesting that Bert and Ernie are a gay couple after saying the puppets were inspired by his own relationship with his partner.

Mark Saltzman, who wrote for the children’s program in the ’80s and ’90s, told the New York Times in an interview on Tuesday that his comments were misinterpreted. 

‘As a writer, you just bring what you know into your work,’ Saltzman, who is gay, said. ‘Somehow, in the uproar, that turned into Bert and Ernie being gay. There is a difference.’ 

During an interview with Queerty, Saltzman said he always felt that Bert and Ernie were a gay couple. He said he first thought of them as lovers after reading a column in The San Francisco Chronicle about a child who asked his mother about the puppet’s sexuality. 

 

‘That, coming from a preschooler was fun. And that got passed around, and everyone had their chuckle and went back to it,’ he said.

‘They are two guys who love each other’: Former Sesame Street writer Mark Saltzman says his comments about Bert and Ernie’s sexual orientation was misinterpreted 

Saltzman, a writer on Sesame Street from 1984 through 1999, previously suggested that he wrote the characters of Bert and Ernie as gay men 

Sesame Workshop immediately denied the puppets are a gay couple, saying in a statement they are simply best friends 

‘And I always felt that without a huge agenda, when I was writing Bert & Ernie, they were. I didn’t have any other way to contextualize them.’ 

Saltzman also told the outlet that people would refer to him and his partner Arnold Glassman, who died in 2003, as Bert and Ernie and he wrote the characters as ‘a loving couple’.   

While speaking with the Times, however, Saltzman said that he and Glassman shared similarities with Bert and Ernie in that they were opposites who found a way to love each other.   

Following the writer’s comments to Queerty, the internet went crazy with praise and anger over the idea of Bert and Ernie being in a same-sex relationship. 

Saltzman now insists it was just one big misunderstanding.

‘They are two guys who love each other. That’s who they are,’ he told the Times. 

Saltzman went on to say that thinks Sesame Street should add a gay couple, but thinks they should be human characters and not puppets. 

Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind Sesame Street, released a statement earlier this week denying the characters are gay.

Saltzman (above) said that he based the two on his own relationship with his life partner Arnold Glassman, who passed away in 2003

Bert and Ernie were initially the creation of Jim Henson and Frank Oz, with the puppets said to have been analogs for the relationship between those two men (Oz and Henson above in 1970)

A number of people lashed out at creator Frank Oz (above) after he tweeted ‘of course’ Bert and Ernie are not gay

Oz later clarified his remarks saying that it wasn’t directed at Saltzman but at the question in general 

Oz said he doesn’t care if someone is gay or viewed as gay but said Bert and Ernie are not homosexual characters 

‘Sesame Street has always stood for inclusion and acceptance. It’s a place were people of all cultural and backgrounds are welcome,’ it read. ‘Bert and Ernie were created to be best friends, and to teach young children that people can get along with those who are very different from themselves.’            

Bert and Ernie were initially the creation of Jim Henson and Frank Oz, with the puppets said to have been analogs for the friendship between those two men, who were both heterosexual.

Oz wrote on Tuesday:  ‘It seems Mr. Mark Saltzman was asked if Bert & Ernie are gay. It’s fine that he feels they are. They’re not, of course. But why that question? Does it really matter? Why the need to define people as only gay? There’s much more to a human being than just straightness or gayness.’

This prompted a number of people to lash out at Oz about the importance of having gay and lesbian characters on television. 

‘Having the flexibility to see them (as gay) was good for me, and the more voices I see CONFIRMING that they DEFINITELY ARE NOT is what makes me said,’ one Twitter user posted. 

Saltzman also stated that Snuffalupagus (above with Big Bird) was written like a closeted gay man

Another commented: ‘As a gay kid who grew up with immense happiness from your creations, this tweet makes so very sad. “They’re not gay, of course.” Why? Because you don’t want them to be? Straight beings don’t have to be defined by their straightness because in our culture all beings are presumed straight until proven otherwise. This is why we go wild when we get a hint of gay representation.’ 

Oz later clarified his remark in a series of tweets on Tuesday.  

In one post, he said his comments were not directed at Saltzman and pointed out that former Sesame Street writer never said Bert and Ernie were a gay couple.

‘My comment was directed towards the questions. (Saltzman) sounds like a caring person. He never said B&E were gay. But when others took that leap from his interview I felt I had to question the need for the question,’ Oz said. 

Bert and Ernie made an appearance on one of the most memorable New Yorker covers in history in the wake of SCOTUS’ marriage equality ruling (above in July 2013

He added: ‘Although it doesn’t matter to me if someone is gay or viewed as gay, I learned it does matter to a great many people who feel they are not represented enough.’  

The nature of Bert and Ernie’s relationship has been the source of much speculation for years.

The two characters sleep in separate beds but share a bedroom in their basement apartment at 123 Sesame Street, where they have lived since 1969 when the show first premiered on television.

Many have long viewed that the two men as a couple, and in July 2013 The New Yorker opted to use an illustration of the pair watching television together on the couch as the cover of their issue in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act and California’s Proposition 8.

Two years prior to that however a petition calling for Bert and Ernie to be married was struck down by Sesame Street Workshop, who released the same statement firmly stating that the two were not gay – or straight – but rather just asexual puppets.

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk