EVEN STRAIGHT FRIENDS CAN CELEBRATE

Bert & Ernie Quietly Celebrate The Death Of DOMA

By Karen Malmquist

THE NEW YORKER NOTED THE NATION’S GROUNDBREAKING CHANGE in laws regulating same-sex marriages with an image of Sesame Street puppets Bert & Ernie snuggling as they watch the Supreme Court presumably hand down this week’s historic decisions.

Because we humans are an argumentative lot, debate has broken over whether the cover denigrates gay couples or is, in fact, one of the “most awesome covers of all time.”

To me, that debate is almost as pointless as arguing that it’s immoral to be gay. As if “being gay” is a choice of fashion; as if gays and lesbians can be anything but who they are. As if the real sin of the “morality” debate is expecting them to be anything other than their authentic selves.

A criticism about using Bert and Ernie to symbolize the court’s rulings is that PBS officials have consistently maintained the two puppets are mere friends without sexual orientation. Which, ironically, is the same public ambivalence with which many gay couples have had to live for decades.

Up until this week, the laws of the land had refused these couples the right to love, cherish and honor their significant others as legal spouses — never mind the lack of joint health, home and life insurance.

But this week’s rulings change the paradigm, affording same-sex couples the right to choose marriage — or not. That decision, whether shouted from the courtroom steps, or quietly acknowledged inside dark living rooms, should be their own. And, gay or not, Bert and Ernie most certainly agree.