Might as well make it legal...

I'm gonna say no, but it has nothing to do with sexuality. It has more to do with the fact that Bert and Ernie have always just been friends and nothing more. The difference between them and Kermit/Ms. Piggy is that we are aware of the romantic relationship between the frog and the pig, while Bert and Ernie have never been portrayed as a couple. They are only friends.

Although, if they decide they are more than just friends, establish that storyline for some time, and then get married, I'm cool with that. It's a good learning tool for kids. I only hope some "family values" group doesn't protest.

 

The Onion managed to put it about as well as I could.

Getting married would only lead to one of two uncomfortable conversations. Either you'd have to explain to your child why two men can get married or you'll have to explain to your child why they aren't allowed to watch Sesame Street anymore.

 

Drawing comparisons of "Sesame Street" to a Muppets motion picture is spurious at best. Sesame Street is designed as an educational vehicle for reinforcing some of the learning basics (alphabet, phonetics, counting) as well as moral behavior (e.g., being nice, not lying, etc.) for a very young, and therefore limited, demographic. "The Muppets Take Manhattan" and other feature films are entertainment vehicles that cater to a much wider audience. The messaging and purpose are entirely different.

One could argue that addressing gay marriage on SS would fall under teaching children to be more accepting and treating everyone with respect regardless of the differences (fundamental moral behavior), but I think it's expecting an awful lot for that age group (what are we talking here, 2-6 year olds?) to be able to wrap their heads around a concept such as an alternative lifestyle. It's not as black and white as racial differences. The issue doesn't need to be thrust upon children vis a vis Bert & Ernie, though their living arrangement can be cited in an explanatory dialogue should Johnny come home from pre-school one afternoon and ask why Mickie has two dads and no mommy.

 

This. I just don't think they're gay. It's a mildly amusing joke, but they're just roommates.

But fuck that "they're too young" business. Children who don't learn to not be shitty people grow up to be shitty young adults.For example, Minnesota school adopts a policy of "gay neutrality" and aren't allowed to discuss homosexuality. Students commit suicide in response to anti-gay bullying.

And what exactly would be the problem with that? If one doesn't want to have "awkward conversations" with his or her kid, maybe he or she shouldn't have become a parent. Because that's part of the bargain.

If two characters of opposite gender were getting married, no one would raise hackles about Sesame Street "sexualizing our children." Apparently, our children are only "sexualized" when the sexuality in question is not heterosexuality.

"Sesame Street is for learning! This isn't the alphabet, or math!" No one raises this concern when the topic in question is race, or illness. We're perfectly fine with "social learning" in other instances, why not this one?

I don't really see any meaningful difference, other than homophobia is considered socially acceptable. The whole "but it's sexuality!" thing is a red herring. No one is asking teachers or TV shows or anyone to draw explicit diagrams here. We're trying to teach basic appreciation of difdferences, not in depth understandings of the mechanics of scissoring. It's not that complicated, and bigots don't have some sort of inherent right to not be offended.

"Some people like boys, other people like girls, some like both. But they're all people." The end.



EDIT: Someone brought up via rep the idea that it is a "political hot topic," and should be out of bounds due to its controversial nature.
1) It shouldn't be. The fact that our political conversation kowtows to bigots of various sorts doesn't mean that anyone else should need to.
2) If you frame the debate in certain ways, nearly everything is political.
2) You know what else were "political hot topics" and to some degree still are? Women's rights and civil rights. It took a Supreme Court decision to let different races marry in some states! Yet we're fine teaching our children about these topics, and rightly so.

Someone might very well not want it "shown to their children." We're not suggesting that their children literally watch two gay men get it on. And decades ago, some parents would have said the exact same thing about interracial couples. I would remind these parents that the TV has an off button.

 

FOCUS: No. Fuck that. The relationship between Ernie and Bert is basically the same as the relationship between me and my twin brother. We even look the same: I'm short and dark and outgoing, my brother's tall and sallow and annoying. Them getting married brings up all sorts of creepy implications. This would singlehandedly ruin the memory of Sesame Street for me.

Amen. If you want to introduce the issue, try and do it with new characters, not ones I grew up with, please. I've got no problem with introducing the topic - I think that kids won't "immediately flash to the sexual" and that attitude will lead to a better future for society - but yeah, new characters.

 

Get it together, Grouch!

 

ALT FOCUS: What issues are too sensitive to bring up for the youngest kids?

Hookers, blow, porn, boone's farm, pulling out, dad's liquor cabinet, the word "fuck," tits, bras, what the hell you're supposed to do with a vagina, where babies come from and what vodka has to do with why your younger brother is in special education, what else you can do with a sock, elicit cartoon pictures of Santa Clause surprising Mrs. Clause in possibly immoral ways, Simpsons, warm beer, cigarettes and what you could do to your babysitter if she happened to bend over.

What's the appropriate age for them to learn about those issues?

Let them learn it on the bus from the older kids like I did. Saved my dad a lot of time.

 

One of the things I've worked toward with my children is to NOT make big issues out of things...gay, straight, black, white, yellow, brown, poor, rich, whatever. I've tried to teach them that some things just are...and that's okay. I've always defined the boundary by saying that if no one is being harmed, no one is being misled, no one is being lied to, no one is under false pretenses, then...let it be.

I'm also trying to teach them that some things are not okay...(like Miss Piggy and Kermit's borderline abusive relationship, for example) and that they shouldn't be accepted. Disrespect, meanness, cruelty, lack of communication...I try to teach them that those things aren't okay, and that if you love someone you should want to treat them with kindness.

So, saying all that, I don't care if Bert and Ernie get married, really, though I do lean a little bit to what Aetius said - it's adults imposing their own agenda onto a children's show.

 

You know what would be awesome, actually? If Grover was gay. He's the one character you can probably get away with changing, because he just doesn't give a fuck. It's like Captain Jack from Torchwood, or Omar from The Wire. He's awesome enough that he would help eradicate the "gay stigma" without making a big deal out of his sexuality.

 

Bert and Ernie were never gay. This is a show for one to six year olds. There was never any intent for this I don't know why people over the years like the Christian right always fly off the handle over shit like this or that the purple teletubbie is gay. Bert and Ernie barely even look human to begin with. Besides, a gay man would never let his eyebrows go the way Bert did.

Jim Henson's early work is pretty demented and violent. The last one killed me:

 

What I find funny is that since they are puppets, very few people really take into account how awfully rude and offensive it would be to pressure two same-gendered roommates into getting married, just because they happen to have lived together for some years.

Burt and Ernie are friends. We would be doing children a disservice by teaching them that their best friend has to eventually be their romantic partner, because "why else would they be so close?"

 

I'm actually surprised there are this many pro-gay people on this site. Nationwide its damn near 50/50 but this site is just about 100% pro-gay.


Like several other people have said, kids don't care about it, its adults who are making the big deal about it. Just like when Rowlings told everyone that Dumbledore was gay after the books were all written. Some people where aghast about it and others didn't care and others cheered it. I thought "What the hell does it matter? It has zero relevance to the Potter books/movies"

 

The news here at the moment is about a politician who's electorate is mostly relatively fashionable / metro area with a lot of younger upper middle class professional types and very few middle aged blue collar types with teenaged kids. In a recent poll - 78% of her electorate indicated that they support gay marriage and 65% of them indicated that they will be very heavily influenced by candidate position on that that issue at the next election. The poll results for the area around the biggest uni in town came out a while back at something like 95% support for gay marriage - and was written off as pinko commie students tainting the poll - but this one is from a more mature and valuable voting group and has a lot of people squirming.

While not doing political work, I get to hang out with a lot of political advisor types at the moment - and everyone is arguing about which way they need to lean for their electorate. The gossip here is that at the next election - anyone with an electorate demographic that isn't primarily hicks or conservative parents needs to support gay marriage, or look for a new jobs. Everyone is trying to figure out if their electorate has more hipsters or hillbillies.

 

It is because the vote is nothing like 50-50 amongst young, nonreligious, well-educated voters. And those three things tend to be fairly applicable to boardmembers here, at least on average.

 

Agreed, I would like to see a nation of people that are well educated and... all that shit he said. I think it would be a more fair, balanced, just, and occasionally lethal system than the world has ever seen.

 

Although to be fair, both of them have been fisted in the ass by some guy every day for the last twenty odd years.