© 2026 ABC News

The response from the show comes two days after Mark Saltzman, who is openly gay, spoke to Queerty about his own coming-out story, and the iconic duo came up. Saltzman was a writer on the show from 1985 to 1998.

\"I remember one time that a column from The San Francisco Chronicle, a preschooler in the city turned to mom and asked, 'Are Bert and Ernie lovers?' And that, coming from a preschooler was fun,\" he said. \"And I always felt that without a huge agenda, when I was writing Bert and Ernie, they were. I didn't have any other way to contextualize them. The other thing was, more than one person referred to Arnie [his partner] and I as 'Bert and Ernie.'\"

When referencing \"Arnie,\" the writer was talking about Arnold Glassman, his partner of 20 years before he died in 2003.

\"PHOTO:
Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock
PHOTO: Bert and Ernie on 'Sesame Street.'
>

Saltzman continued, \"Yeah, I was Ernie. I look more Bert-ish. And Arnie as a film editor -- if you thought of Bert with a job in the world, wouldn't that be perfect? Bert with his paper clips and organization? And I was the jokester. So it was the Bert and Ernie relationship, and I was already with Arnie when I came to 'Sesame Street.' So I don't think I'd know how else to write them but as a loving couple.\"

He admitted he never told the head writer he was writing the characters this way, adding, \"there's not a Bert and Ernie float in the Pride Parade.\"

A cover from 2013: Bert and Ernie’s “Moment of Joy.” https://t.co/iVmV1JyDxa pic.twitter.com/licDoenyaV

— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) September 18, 2018

And while a 2013 New Yorker cover suggested the pair were gay, the show released a similar statement at the time, once again saying puppets don't have a sexual orientation.

Still, Saltzman added, \"The New Yorker cover was kind of vindication.\"

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