Bert and Ernie

[ardus]

you know when I was a kid watching sesame street the idea that bert and ernie might be gay would have never ever occured to me. I didn't understand why kermit and miss piggy kissed on the muppet show either, by the way, Kermit is the only muppet that was on both, fun fact. I saw bert and ernie growing up the same way I saw the odd couple, two guys who had a lot of silly fights that were funny to watch. Now as an adult I can sense a lot of undercurrent of course, but my thing is, why should we complicate things for kids further than they already are. The world is so much more difficult to understand for kids today than is was for my generation, they have so many things that they have to process and understand, can't something like sesame street just stand as a bastion of simple honest lets teach kids how to be good people. When I was a kid people talked about sesame street as balsy because they had all races represented, and yeah we should have all genders and all sexualities represented, but, can't bert and ernie just be friends?

[jbrowder24]

I've been meaning to write on this and I just haven't had the time to do so as much as I wanted, but I do want to say that because PBS is funded in part by taxes/government, it's not the best idea to push such a topic at this time. It'd only further give activists on the right reason to want to deny funding, and then Sesame Street could end up lost for everyone.

I would say that if gay characters were to be brought on the show, they should introduce new ones. Sure everyone thinks Bert and Ernie must be gay, but what's wrong with also showing an example of strong friendship and roommates that isn't a relationship? But for now, it's probably best it be avoided on a show like this that is already under attack for being too liberal and at risk of losing funding as it is.