Bert & Ernie, "Roommates"?

Now, personally, I have no vested interest in Bert & Ernie Coming Out, as to me they were always best friends who lived together. Now, could they be gay? Yes. Does that mean they're a romantic couple? No. Could one be gay and one be straight? Yes. Could they both be straight? Yes. It's possible, if improbable. ;-) hehehe.

That said, Sesame Street will eventually have an LGBT character. It just will. The show premiered in 1969...America still struggling to deal with racial integration and on comes a TV show set in New York City where people of all walks of life and ethnicity and cultural background are living in harmony together. With Muppets. Check out the earliest seasons - the racial-integration angle is worked hard and it needed to be - this country was split apart by racial tensions and prejudice. Sesame Street showed young children a world where colour was not a divide - cultures were celebrated, differences emrbaced, friendship and understanding giving premium. All good things.

The South African version even has Kami, a Muppet with HIV. North Americans may balk at that but the reality of South Africa's HIV rates in their population show how necessary a character like Kami is to children who are indeed growing up in an HIV-positive world.

LGBT people are a part of culture. Children watching Sesame Street have always had gay family members, most just didn't know it. Many young people (ahem, MOI) who watched the show were/are gay.

It may not be Bert & Ernie, but one day LGBT people will be represented on Sesame Street. And I have a feeling we'll be welcomed warmly.