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I Know What and Who Bert Is: Frank Oz Weighs in On Bert and Ernie Gay Debate

The decades-old discussion over Bert and Ernie's relationship status has been raging on Twitter

Frank Oz is the voice of dozens of puppets and muppets as one of Jim Henson's earliest collaborators — and now the storied puppeteer is lending his voice to the debate over whether "Sesame Street" characters Bert and Ernie are gay.

"I created Bert. I know what and who he is," Oz wrote, squashing the idea that Bert and Ernie were a couple.

The decades-old discussion over Bert and Ernie's relationship status raged on Twitter after former "Sesame Street" writer Mark Saltzman told blog "Queerty" he wrote the duo as a couple based on his own real-world relationship with film editor Arnold Glassman.

"It seems Mr. Mark Saltzman was asked if Bert & Ernie are gay. It's fine that he feels they are. They're not, of course," Oz wrote in a tweet. "But why that question? Does it really matter? Why the need to define people as only gay? There's much more to a human being than just straightness or gayness."

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