Nickelodeon has suggested beloved children's character SpongeBob Squarepants is gay in a post celebrating Pride month in the US.
The kid's television network tweeted out an image of the iconic sea sponge glowing in rainbow light alongside two other TV characters who are known members of the LGBTQ community.
"Celebrating #Pride with the LGBTQ+ community and their allies this month and every month," Nickelodeon captioned the images, featuring Korra from The Legend of Korra, who is bisexual, and actor Michael D Cohen from Henry Danger, who transitioned 20 years ago.
Nickelodeon turned the comments off for their tweet, but many Twitter users were pleased by the post, pointing out that hints about Spongebob's sexuality have been dropped throughout the show's run.
"Y'all are shocked SpongeBob gay? He's been hinting at it for years," one tweet read alongside an image of SpongeBob drawing a rainbow in the air with his hands.
"Spongebob gay? I mean he literally had a baby with Patrick," said another.
"All the homophobes are so mad Spongebob is gay I HAVE TO LAUGH," wrote a third.
"So now SpongeBob gay lol... 2020 doing so many people wrong. He a sponge, they [trying to] expose these kids to everything too early [sic]," one tweet complained.
"I watched Spongebob when I was a kid. Never once did I consider him gay or straight. Never once did I consider there was anything sexual about him at all. Why? Because I was a child, watching a children's show, AND HE'S A SPONGE," wrote another.
Buzzfeed points out that in 2005, the show's creator Stephen Hillenburg described SpongeBob and his friend Patrick as "almost asexual" in response to conservative claims the show promoted homosexuality. Some Twitter users said SpongeBob's potential asexuality would mean still see him included in the LGBTQ community.
