Online petition asks Bert and Ernie to get married on Sesame Street

http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/08/10/Petition_Seeks_to_Out_Bert_and_Ernie/

Posted on Advocate.com August 10, 2011 10:55:00 AM ET
Petition Seeks to Out Bert and Ernie
By Julie Bolcer



An online petition launched Monday argues that for the sake of children, PBS and Sesame Street should acknowledge that long-term “roommates” Bert and Ernie are gay and allow the Muppets to marry.

According to the petition posted to Change.org and promoted on Facebook, if the beloved characters were to disclose the true nature of their relationship, it “would show children and their parents that not only is it acceptable but also teach children that homophobia is wrong, bullying is wrong and that Sesame Street should recognize that there are LGBT relationships, families, and include them in their show.”

The petition, created by Lair Scott, Shane Cowart, Alex Maggs, and Mark Szabo, had more than 250 signatures by Wednesday morning.

Their proposal drew opposition from the New York Daily News, which said in an editorial Wednesday that “some stages of life — for example, the years from 2 to 4 — must be walled off from the passions of adults. Already it's absurd that Cookie Monster denigrates cookies as ‘a sometime snack’ and pronounces his zeal also for eating eggplant.”

“The only hands Henson ever intended to go up Ernie's horizontally striped shirt, or Bert's vertically striped one, were human puppeteers,” argued the Daily News about the characters’ late creator, Jim Henson.

Rumors that Bert and Ernie represent a gay couple have long circulated, with the Children’s Television Workshop, now known as Sesame Workshop, issuing formal denials as early as 1993.

“Bert and Ernie, who’ve been on Sesame Street for 25 years, do not portray a gay couple, and there are no plans for them to do so in the future,” said the statement almost 20 years ago. “They are puppets, not humans. Like all the Muppets created for Sesame Street, they were designed to help educate preschoolers. Bert and Ernie are characters who help demonstrate to children that despite their differences, they can be good friends.”

In 1994, Joseph Chambers, a North Carolina preacher, attempted to get the duo banned because of their close living arrangement and “blatantly effeminate characteristics,” saying on a radio show, “If this isn't meant to represent a homosexual union, I can't imagine what it's supposed to represent.”

Whether or not the fictitious characters have a sexual orientation, Bert and Ernie live in a state with a marriage equality law, as Sesame Street takes place in an unidentified New York City neighborhood.

Okay, people seriously have to QUIT it with these things. Making Bert and Ernie gay would be a very stupid idea. We don't need to go around giving puppets sexual orientations. For crying out loud! IMO, it's things like this which really expose the hypocrisy of today's society.

I guess nobody's ever heard of roommates or friendships that aren't sexual. I guess that's the message to teach kid. If you are friends with somebody of the same sex, you must be gay...

The thing that's odd & hilarious at the same time is the number of right wing conservatives who feel the need to post at sites like The Advocate & Towleroad. Interesting.

As far as Bert & Ernie, whatever. They're puppets y'all.

^^^^Just like plenty of left-wing liberals go to conservatives sites to post too? lol

^^not me lol

Truthfully I think they go to The Advocate & Towleroad for the ads. They're often quite nice.

I think the whole Bert & Ernie being gay thing is stupid and probably born out of homophobia. . . now some gays are jumping on the idea of it to prove a point. I DO think there should be Sesame Street muppets that have harmless same sex crushes & puppy love to teach kids to be accepting but Bert & Ernie shouldnt be it. The whole thing w/them is too much of a joke and mockery @ this point.

Personally, I'm indifferent about the petition, but I'm all for the gay wedding in theory. Not so much the political aspect, but simply the representation of normalized gayness to kids while their minds are still fresh and unbiased. If we're going to raise kids progressively, then they'll need the same exposure to (age-appropriate) gay content that they've always had to straight content in kids' shows, presented as an equally normal part of life and treated as a non-issue. I can understand how "politicizing" an innocent kids' show would seem out of place, but at the end of the day, I think it's for the best. Besides, I doubt the kids would even mind as much as we adults do (if at all). To them, it's only a big deal when/because we treat it like one by projecting our own hangups onto them.

stonestatic wrote:Personally, I'm indifferent about the petition, but I'm all for the gay wedding in theory. Not so much the political aspect, but simply the representation of normalized gayness to kids while their minds are still fresh and unbiased. If we're going to raise kids progressively, then they'll need the same exposure to (age-appropriate) gay content that they've always had to straight content in kids' shows, presented as an equally normal part of life and treated as a non-issue. I can understand how "politicizing" an innocent kids' show would seem out of place, but at the end of the day, I think it's for the best. Besides, I doubt the kids would even mind as much as we adults do (if at all). To them, it's only a big deal when/because we treat it like one by projecting our own hangups onto them.

For fuck sake leave Bert and Ernie alone!

These same people fighting the petition would be livid if somebody tried to push an agenda they didn't agree with onto the kids via Sesame Street. "We gotta expose the kids while they're young and impressionable." UNLESS you don't like what the kids are being exposed to. THEN you start throwing a fit and become like the people you made fun of. lol It's really hilarious to see people's double standards.

GrayWolf wrote:For fuck sake leave Bert and Ernie alone!

Seriously. This is retarded.

Are you fucking kidding me?


Among other things I would like to point out....I don't know if the puppets AGE much but I recall Ernie talking about being a doctor and adding up how many years it would take, he was only in the FOURTH GRADE. Though that does make me wonder then how are he and Bert roommates if they're that young? Of course I get it's Sesame Street, real world rules don't really apply here, but still...but I was surprised by that, as a kid I didn't think they were kids but apparently so.

GrayWolf wrote:For fuck sake leave Bert and Ernie alone!

As much as it may bring kids up to speed on the current debate about gay marriage, I think Bert & Ernie should continue as they always have, as companions who live together.

The fact that they are two guys living together is not necessarily sexual or intimate, they are just two friends and kids understand that. They get to 'sleepover' every nite just like a couple of boys or a couple of girls might do with their friends IRL every once in a while.

GrayWolf wrote:For fuck sake leave Bert and Ernie alone!

Sesame Street's response

Sesame Workshop Statement on Bert and Ernie Petitions
by Sesame Workshop on Thursday, August 11, 2011 at 9:00am

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.


https://www.facebook.com/note.php?created&¬e_id=10150290119497855&id=13759741267

CeCe wrote:Sesame Street's response

I never could figure out how those two COULD be friends since Ernie was always driving Bert crazy.

Sesame Street Shoots Down Bert and Ernie Wedding: Puppets Are Just Friends, No Benefits
Today 12:45 PM PDT
by Gina Serpe




For the past few weeks, the topic on the mind of everyone with an opinion and an Internet connection has been the debt ceiling the London riots whether or not cohabitating, lifelong platonic and ostensibly straight puppet pals Bert and Ernie should get married.

Well, today Sesame Street has surprisingly entered the fray and provided a definitive answer to the calls for the duo's outing: it doesn't matter whether they should or not, they ain't gonna.

Guess this message was not brought to us by the letters "L," "G," "B" and "T."

The well-intentioned, if slightly misguided, campaign to get the bathtub bros united in holy matrimony sprang from an online petition and Facebook page. Backers sought to marry off the fabric friends, arguing that such an official pairing would be a boon to gay rights, send a progressive message that would be hard to argue with (though that hasn't stopped some people from trying) and teach impressionable young viewers about tolerance and equality.

Important lessons, to be sure. But ones that the Sesame Street Workshop says they're already teaching—all without a forced sexualization of the long-running characters.

"Bert and Ernie are best friends," the Workshop said in a statement today. "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."

Uh, guess we'll just ignore Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy's decades of simmering, flirtatious sexual tension, then, shall we?

In any case, the original petition, which received nearly 5,400 signatures on its initial posting and another 2,600 on its Facebook page, was launched this month with the best of intentions.

"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. Aside from those that are committing suicide, the bullies that facilitate these tragedies need to learn that homophobia is NOT okay. They need to know that acceptance of their fellow human beings would indeed plant a seed of peace that will reverberate throughout the world.

"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."

In other words, sure, it may be the most wink-wink, nudge-nudge on-screen partnership in TV history, but the rampant speculation about the inner workings of Bert and Ernie's relationship is going to have to remain just that.

Read more: http://www.eonline.com/news/sesame_street_shoots_down_bert_ernie/257556#ixzz1UlRAlmE9

The things people say to try to justify marrying two puppets is truly laughable.

When I was a kid and watching Sesame Street, I never thought for a moment that there was anything less than platonic between them. I simply thought that they were friends that lived together, with their clashing personalities being what made them interesting. And wasn't THAT the point: to demonstrate that people who're different could still be friends? Sort of like the Odd Couple, or the Golden Girls. Why is it so necessary for some people to come along and try to pervert that premise with untoward talk of hanky panky?