I thought the petition was ridiculous enough to ignore, but Sesame Workshop's statement on Bert & Ernie getting married was too ridiculous not to call bullshit on it:
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.Just compare that to the more ambiguous phrasing of 'Street's earliest responses to the question of Bert & Ernie's looming marriage, from 1993 [via the Muppet Wiki]: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.
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. They are puppets, not humans.See, they just "do not portray a gay couple." Totally different.
Sesame Workshop statement on Bert & Ernie petitions [facebook]
Are Ernie and Bert Gay? [muppet.wikia.com]
Who'd want to marry Bert anyway? He's a total ass!
I never liked that show. I was always an Electric Company/Captain Kangaroo/Zoom sort of kid.
It's a bit disingenuous for them to claim that puppets don't have sexual orientation when Oscar has a girlfriend, the Count has had numerous ones, and even the muppet "girl groups" have sung about their "boyfriends."
I think Joan Rivers ended this issue forever the other day on Twitter:
@joan_rivers: There is NO WAY that Bert and Ernie are gay. They haven't changed their outfits in 25 years.