roomies

I have always thought that Bert and Ernie were a couple. Even from very early on. Their domesticity was as adorable as their shenanigans. Their being together was as taken for granted as the Cookie Monster bulldozing through a box of oreos or as Big Bird breaking into song in the middle of reciting the alphabet But yes, they were gay. And apparently Frank Oz decided it was necessary to tell people that they're puppets and puppets do not have sexual orientation? Well, somebody tell that to Miss Piggy and Kermit. They seem pretty heterosexual to me...

If we look closely, Bert and Ernie are even more of a couple than Kermit and Miss Piggy will ever be. They shared a cozy domesticity that Miss Piggy's ego would never allow. They understood and supported each other even though they had different points of view. They accepted each other's quirks. They shared house chores.  Even when there were no gay role models for me on TV when I was growing up and I would only discover homoertocisim through reading when I was in my teens, seeing Bert and Ernie together and laughing at their silly shenanigans while they taught the prepositions or the notion of property through a rubber duckie, I also learned that men could live together and have a close relationship. And I think Frank Oz will also see that.

So when some decided to go and contradict one of their creators and deny that they are anything more than 'roomies', I still feel that for a queer boy, starved for images of people like him, the fact that Bert and Ernie live their idillic amitié particulière in a program oriented to children is still a great asset. I know that Disney has introduced queer characters in some of their series (to the dismay of the usual bigots) and even though I hope more will come, I'll always have Bert and Ernie's 'friendship' as a keystone of my younger years because Sesame Street did and still certainly does open our eyes to seeing the things that are around us with the eyes of our true selves.

xoxo