Are Bert and Ernie gay? For years, the team behind “Sesame Street” has explained that, no, Bert and Ernie are . . . puppets. But try telling that to the Twitter mob.
Mark Saltzman, a scriptwriter for “Sesame Street” in the 1980s and ’90s, has revealed that he always imagined Bert and Ernie as “loving partners,” drawing on his own experience as a gay man. In response, Sesame Workshop issued its usual statement about how the characters “were created to teach preschoolers that people can be good friends with those who are very...