Are Ernie and Bert gay?

It has long been rumored that Sesame Street's Bert and Ernie are homosexual. At various times the rumor has escalated into the two actually getting married on the show.

In early 1994, Rev. Joseph Chambers attempted to get the puppets banned under a little-used anti-gay law in the deep South. The preacher once said on his radio show:
 * "Bert and Ernie are two grown men sharing a house and a bedroom. They share clothes, eat and cook together and have blatantly effeminate characteristics."

The Children's Television Workshop has steadfastly denied rumors about Bert and Ernie's sexual orientation. One of their many prepared responce statements (this one from 1993) reads:


 * "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. Like all the Muppets created for Sesame Street, they were designed to help educate preschoolers. Bert and Ernie are characters who help demonstrate to children that despite their differences, they can be good friends."

Although it is almost impossible to pin down where the "Bert and Ernie are gay" rumor began, one potential source is The Real Thing, a 1980 book by Kurt Andersen. In this book (which ís "A guide to separating the genuine from the ersatz, the men from the boys, and the wheat from the chaff"), Andersen makes the following claim:


 * Bert and Ernie conduct themselves in the same loving, discreet way that millions of gay men, women and hand puppets do. They do their jobs well and live a splendidly settled life together in an impeccably decorated cabinet.

Steve Whitmire, the voice and puppeteer for Ernie, once responded to the rumors that Bert & Ernie are lovers, to students at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University, September 10, 1997 by saying:
 * "They're puppets. They don't exist below the waist!"

Ernie spoke out on the claims at the same Carnegie Mellon University event saying:
 * "All that stuff about me and Bert? It's not true. We're both very happy, but we're not gay."