Wed. August 10, 2011
Chicago, IL -
A Chicago man has created an online petition that urges producers of Sesame Street to let Bert and Ernie get hitched.
The petition started by Lair Scott on Change.org encourages producers to "Let Bert & Ernie get married on Sesame Street."
"We are not asking Sesame Street to do anything crude or disrespectful…. It can be done in a tasteful way. Let us teach tolerance of those that are different," continued the petition.
ChicagoPride.com was unable to reach Scott for comment.
The twosome, who've been on Sesame Street for 25 years, have long been rumored to be a gay couple, though The Children's Television Workshop has steadfastly denied the rumors.
"They are not gay, they are not straight, they are puppets… they do not exist below the waist," Sesame Workshop president Gary Knell wrote in 2007.
That isn't stopping Scott, who's also got a petition to convince show producers to "Out Bert and Ernie as Gay."
The petitions on Change.org don't stop with Scott's, now there is a "Leave Bert and Ernie alone" petition and a "Stop Pressuring PBS to make Bert and Ernie Gay" petition.
The "Let Bert & Ernie get married on Sesame Street" petition is the largest with nearly 3,000 signatures at time of this article posting.
There is also a Facebook fanpage calling for nuptials of the platonic (or not-so-platonic) puppets.
The award-winning children's television show, which premiered on the Public Broadcast Service in 1969, has been known to tackle a variety of controversial social topics through the years.
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