You Must See the New Yorker's DOMA Cover

Odds are you have, at some point in your life, made a joke about Bert and Ernie's sexuality. Well, a just-revealed New Yorker cover takes those jokes to the next level, making them downright sweet. Titled "Bert and Ernie's Moment of Joy," the image is intended, according to artist Jack Hunter, to celebrate "how attitudes on gay rights have evolved in my lifetime."

The image was originally submitted on Tumblr for a competition last year, EW reveals; the TV in the picture originally showed Barack Obama instead of the Supreme Court, in reference to Obama's change of heart on gay marriage. But not everyone is in love with the cover. This "is a terrible way to commemorate a major civil rights victory," writes June Thomas at Slate. Sesame Street Workshop has repeatedly said that the two characters are simply best friends, and, as its president once said, they "do not exist beneath the waist." And Thomas thinks we should respect that. "You see, straight America, there's a difference between same-sex friends and gay lovers." (More Sesame Street stories.)