Sesame Street is wrong to say Bert and Ernie can't have a sexual orientation because they're puppets

Vulture

Sesame Workshop quickly refuted ex-Sesame Street writer Mark Saltzman's apparent confirmation to Queerty that Bert and Ernie are gay, saying in a statement: “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.” As Kathryn VanArendonk argues, "this is poppycock," pointing to the Sesame Street characters Mama, Papa, Baby and Curly Bear. "If Muppets don’t have sex, then how does reproduction work? Where would Baby and Curly Bear even come from?" she asks. "Sesame Street Muppets," she adds, "share a universe with Muppet Show Muppets: Kermit has appeared on Sesame Street, Big Bird makes a cameo in The Muppet Movie, and Rowlf appeared in the pilot pitch reel for the Sesame Street series. This makes their shared universe canon. And if the Muppets of Sesame Street cannot have a sexual orientation because they’re puppets, that same argument would have to go for the Muppets of The Muppet Show. Postulating that puppet-ness prevents beings like Elmo or Cookie Monster from having a sexual orientation is one thing. It feels nonthreatening. They’re so sweet and cuddly! But extending that same puppet-ness as a foundational argument for the absent sexuality of characters like Sam the Eagle? Miss Piggy? Pepe the King Prawn? Rowlf?! That borders on insanity."

ALSO:

• Sesame Street bungled the chance to say "Yep, Bert and Ernie are gay. So what?"
• Why are Bert and Ernie without sexual orientation when Miss Piggy is so lustfully sex-crazed for Kermit?
• Frank Oz, the voice of Bert, tweeted: "Does it really matter? Why the need to define people as only gay?"
• Why Oz should realize that it does matter to question whether Bert and Ernie are gay: "When you’re the isolated gay kid in your own desert, why not look to the oasis of Bert and Ernie, not fitting in to the established order in their own way, and ask some questions of them and maybe yourself," says Tim Teeman. "Such questions can be liberating and nourishing."
• "Look: Saltzman affirming the idea of Bert and Ernie being lovers has nothing to do with their sex lives," says Charles Pulliam-Moore, "and everything to do with the fact that theirs is one of the most stable, healthy, and caring relationships in television history—on a show that’s meant for children, no less."
• Bert is still trending on Twitter above Ernie