‘Sesame Street’ vice president says Bert and Ernie are gay if people want them to be
Brown Johnson said people can 'think whatever they want' about the two puppets
By Steve Brown
The executive vice president of Sesame Street has said Bert and Ernie are gay if people want them to be.
Last year, Sesame Street writer Mark Saltzman spoke to Queerty about the two iconic puppets and said he while he was writing the characters, he imagined them as a same-sex couple.
However, the revelation that they could be a couple was praised by the LGBT community, but Sesame Street bosses took to Twitter and said that they couldn’t be a loving couple because they are puppets without sexuality.
And Frank Oz – who, alongside Jim Henson, created The Muppets – followed up confirming that the two puppets are not gay and wrote on Twitter: “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.”
Oz then backtracked on his comments which caused outrage among the LGBT+ community and said it was “wonderful” that people think they are gay.
And now, executive vice president Brown Johnson – who has won Emmy Awards for her work on the children’s show – told The Hollywood Reporter that ‘people can think whatever they want’.
She said: “People can think whatever they want [about Bert and Ernie]. You want to think they’re gay? Okay.
“You want to think they’re not gay? They’re not gay.”