Is Nickelodeon's pride month tweet celebration confirming 'SpongeBob' as gay?

Nickelodeon has created a buzz with its recent tweet for the Pride month celebration that included an image of a rainbow-tinted SpongeBob wearing a rainbow-colored tie.

SpongeBob's gender has long been questioned by many and Nickelodeon's tweet seemed to be his "coming out" party.

The tweet's timing is also appropriate as it is in celebration of the pride month, thus it is seemingly confirming that SpongeBob is indeed a member of the LGBTQ+ community.

What is more, aside from SpongeBob's image, there are also the images of Henry Danger's Schoz Schwartz and Avatar: The last Airbender's Korra.

The addition of these two other images seems to be telling because they are established members of the LGBTQ+ community.

Netizens have long labeled SpongeBob as gay because of his closeness to Patrick Star, who is his bestfriend.

However, Stephen Hillenburg, the show's creator had dismissed the claims of SpongeBob being gay.

He told People magazine in 2005 that they had not intended the characters of SpongeBob SquarePants to be gay and that he considered them as asexual. Hillenburg, however, passed away in 2018.

SpongeBob SquarePants is one of the long-time running and popular shows of Nickelodeon with 12 seasons already under its belt since it first aired in 1999. It has also had two movies— The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie in 2004 and Sponge Out of Water in 2015. And, a third one is set to come out this August, Sponge On The Run, which will be featuring a cameo from Keanu Reeves.

Although Nickelodeon has turned off the replies to the now-famous tweet, it did allow some from the accounts that they are following.

Most responses, however, have been favorable with most congratulating SpongeBob for coming out. Some said they are happy for him and that they support him all the way.