It's possible to be gay and not have sex anyway. And the theory was that the puppets were BASED in a homosexual couple. That being said, Bert and Ernie were not about sexuality but were about two different personalities being good friends. Possubly it was inspired by The odd couple, as many things were influenced by the same theme.
Yes, the names of Bert and Ernie were taken from it's a wonderful life.

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I just rememberedin "It's a Wonderful Life" the cabbie and the cop that go with George to his old house are named Bert and Ernie also (pretty sure). Maybe they got it from that?

I've heard that before. People are strange trying to attribute sexual orientation to puppets. Puppets don't have sex. They don't have genitals! They have a hand up where their ass should be! Anyway, yeah, I kinda think they got the idea for Bert and Ernie from this movie but I've never heard the people at Sesame Street say so.