Cartoon Characters Coming Out

If you're a fan of Family Guy, the following bit of news may not come as a surprise: The show's creator, Seth MacFarlane, has outed the youngest Griffin character, Stewie, saying that the 1-year-old is gay. What??? A gay baby?!! No, no, sorry: According to McFarlane, Stewie will grow up to be gay. MacFarlane and the shows writers' have dropped clues about Stewie's sexuality throughout the series, but this is the first confirmation of Stewie's orientation.

Stewie isn't the only character on a popular TV show to raise questions about sexuality. Perhaps in hopes of subtly promoting tolerance, TV whizzes through the ages have created possibly-gay characters. Here are a few of the best-known:

Bert and Ernie: These two puppets have lived together in harmonious, domestic bliss for decades. While this might strike people as a sweet testament to puppetry companionship, it has long been rumored that perhaps they were "together" together.

Tinky-Winky from the Teletubbies: You thought these characters were just friendly, colorful, pre-school entertainment. But some people thought Tinky-Winky was gay because of his purple shade and triangle head-topper (a color and shape sometimes used as part of the Gay Pride movement).

SpongeBob SquarePants: SpongeBob and his pal Patrick, a starfish, have a close friendship. And like Bert and Ernie, these two sea creatures have also stirred rumors about their relationship. When questions about SpongeBob's sexuality came up in the media, the series creator Stephen Hillenburg told the Wall Street Journal, ''I always think of [the characters] as being somewhat asexual." But he also thought that the show might offer comfort for those in the LGBT community. ''I do think that the attitude of the show is about tolerance. Everybody is different, and the show embraces that,'' he told the Journal. ''No one is shut out.''

All of which leaves us thinking: Does it really matter if these characters are gay? Is it simply part of who they are as characters, like Marge Simpson's blue hair or Arthur the Aardvark's glasses? Should writers and creators be praised for coming up with sexually ambiguous characters, or condemned for not proudly touting their characters' homosexuality? And is Seth MacFarlane a good guy, or an evil idiot who equates homosexuality with Oedipal violence and dysfunction? We're pretty sure you'll have some thoughts on this.