Sesame Street Executive Says Bert and Ernie Are Gay if You Want Them to Be

An executive from veteran children’s show Sesame Street has told The Hollywood Reporter that fans are allowed to think of Bert and Ernie as gay if they wish to.

Brown Johnson executive vice president of Sesame Workshop, the company that created Sesame Street, sat down with the Reporter and 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.”

The comments come in response to in interview gay Sesame Street writer Mark Saltzman gave to Queerty in September of last year. When asked about the puppets Saltzman said he had lifted from his own life when writing for them: “I always felt that without a huge agenda, when I was writing Bert and Ernie, they were [gay]. I didn’t have any other way to contextualise them.”

Sesame Street responded at the time: “Even though they are identifiable as male characters and possess many human traits and characteristics, they remain puppets, and have no sexual orientation.”

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