Kids React to debate over Bert and Ernie’s sexuality (Photo: YouTube)
Children have had their say on whether Sesame Street’s Bert and Ernie are a gay couple. They also commented on how the program handled the situation.
Mark Saltzman said the pair’s shenanigans were often inspired by his real-life relationship with late documentary filmmaker Arnold Glassman.
Sesame Street responded, however, by saying ‘Bert and Ernie are best friends’.
‘While they are identified as male characters and possess many human traits and characteristics, they remain puppets, and do not have a sexual orientation’ the show said in a statement.
Critics were keen to point that other Sesame Street characters had a sexuality.
Kids React
[embedded content]
Some of the children on Kids React showed support for Bert and Ernie’s ‘coming out’. Others agreed with Sesame Street that puppets were without sexuality. Some kids blamed adults for blowing the whole thing out of proportion.
‘Its really important that we open up to other things’, one child said. Another said it was a ‘good idea’ to expose kids to different sexualities at a young age.
However, one child said ‘I am just a little shocked, it’s a bit weird’.
One child said ‘always adults make a big deal about everything’. ‘
‘What tells them that they are a couple?’ one child asked. ‘A lot of boys and boys go fishing, a lot of them live in the same house’.
