Why it matters that Bert and Ernie are gay, which they are

Can puppets have a sexual orientation?It’s a question you probably didn’t expect to be debating this week, but here we are.
In an interview with Queerty earlier this week, long-time Sesame Street writer Mark Saltzman said that he wrote Bert and Ernie’s relationship — long a subject of fond, tongue-in-cheek speculation — to be that of “a loving couple.” According to Saltzman, during his 15-year tenure with the show, he modeled Bert and Ernie after his ow