SpongeBob SquarePants’ Sexuality: Is the Cartoon Gay or Asexual?

After Nickelodeon shared a celebratory Pride Month tweet featuring SpongeBob SquarePants wearing a rainbow-colored tie on Saturday afternoon, users online believed it was the network’s way of quietly announcing that the TV cartoon character was gay.

The tweet read, “Celebrating #Pride with the LGBTQ+ community and their allies this month and every month Rainbow,” and along with SpongeBob, included photos of transgender actor Michael D. Cohen, who plays Schwoz Schwartz on Henry Danger, and Korra from the Avatar spin-off show Legend of Korra, who’s in a same-sex relationship in the series, are presented in a rainbow color collage, appearing as if they are all part of the same LGBTQ community.

Celebrating #Pride with the LGBTQ+ community and their allies this month and every month 🌈 ⁣
(🎨: by @ramzymasri) pic.twitter.com/pENmTaQB0h

— Nickelodeon (@Nickelodeon) June 13, 2020

Nickelodeon’s seemingly revealing tweet quickly went viral and caused “SpongeBob Gay” to trend nationally on Twitter. While some users online couldn’t believe the cartoon’s sexuality was even being discussed, many fans of the show believed he was clearly gay all along.

Oh come on we all knew spongebob was a lil… pic.twitter.com/Af6VOsPPk9

— mateo (@notmateo2) June 13, 2020

NICK JUST SAID “SPONGEBOB GAY” AND TURNED OFF REPLIES https://t.co/Xdlal3j2t0

— ACAB for Cutie ✊🏼️🇵🇷 (@cordy_fox) June 13, 2020

What was surprising about Nickelodeon’s tweet was that they turned off the ability for anyone to comment on their post. While the kids’ network doesn’t explicitly say the SpongeBob is gay in their viral tweet, it’s clear that Nickelodeon didn’t want any hateful messages to be tagged to their post.

The Creator of ‘SpongeBob SquarePants’ Previously Stated the Cartoon was Asexual

GettyStephen Hillenburg, the writer of a U.S. cartoon “The SpongeBob SquarePants” poses with SpongeBob SquarePants.

In 2005, Stephen Hillenburg, the mastermind behind the popular TV cartoon character stated that he was neither straight nor gay. Just because SpongeBob spends a lot of time with his best friend Patrick Starfish, it does not mean the series is promoting a homosexual lifestyle.

“It doesn’t have anything to do with what we’re trying to do,” Hillenburg said. “We never intended them to be gay. I consider them to be almost asexual. We’re just trying to be funny and this has got nothing to do with the show.”

While the conversation continues to be a hot topic of discussion, Hillenburg never gave the controversial matter that much attention. He said that there are “more important issues to worry about.”

Michael D. Cohen Transitioned From Female to Male Nearly 20 Years Ago

GettyMichael D. Cohen attends Nickelodeon’ Holiday for “Cousins For Life” And “Henry Danger” in 2018

Nearly 20 years ago, Cohen transitioned from male to female. He told TIME magazine, “I was misgendered at birth. I identify as male, and I am proud that I have had a transgender experience — a transgender journey.”

Cohen said the reason he decided to go public as being transgender was that “this crazy backlash and oppression of rights is happening right in front of me. I can’t stay silent. The level of — let’s be polite — misunderstanding around trans issues is so profound and so destructive. When you disempower one population, you disempower everybody.”

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