Bert and Ernie will not be getting married. To each other, or anyone else.
The demands of an online petition calling for Bert and Ernie to get married, which has become an internet sensation, has been denied by the Sesame Street Workshop, who issued this statement on their Facebook page:
Bert and Ernie are best friends. They were created to teach preschoolers that people can be good friends with those who are very different from themselves. Even though they are identified as male characters and possess many human traits and characteristics (as most Sesame Street Muppets™ do), they remain puppets, and do not have a sexual orientation.
This isn’t the first time the organization has denied a sexual relationship between their two roommate puppets; in June 2010, a tweet sent from the Sesame Street Twitter account from Bert that said his mohawk was more “mo” than “hawk” was suspected by bloggers to be a sort of coded acknowledgment of their relationship.
Bloggers also took as a hint the large number of gay guest stars from that season, to which Sesame Street responded, “We’ve always reached out to a variety of actors and athletes and celebrities to appear on the show, and our programming has always appealed to adults as much as children.”
Reportedly, the LBGT community vowed to not give up asking Sesame Street to use these best friends (Bert & Ernie) as a learning tool.
“In this horrific age of LGBT kids taking their own lives, they need to know that they ARE BEAUTIFUL and their lives are worth living,” reads the Let Bert & Ernie Get Married on Sesame Street petition. “We are not asking that Sesame Street do anything crude or disrespectful by allowing Bert & Ernie to marry. It can be done in a tasteful way. Let us teach tolerance of those that are different. Let Sesame Street and PBS Kids be a big part in saving many worthy lives.”
Thursday afternoon, the petition had over 5000 signatures.
