By PAMELA AVILA - E! Online




This weekend, Nickelodeon confirmed that SpongeBob SquarePants is, in fact, a member of the LGBTQ+ community.

"Celebrating #Pride with the LGBTQ+ community and their allies this month and every month," wrote the network on Twitter, alongside a picture of SpongeBob, transgender Canadian actor Michael Cohen, who played Schwoz Schwartz in Henry Danger and Korra from The Legend of Korra, who is bisexual.

Quickly, "Spongebob is gay" became a trending topic on Twitter.

And while some fans thought Nickelodeon was confirming that SpongeBob is gay—although they didn't specific what our favorite yellow sponge identifies as—the network could possibly be referring to the "A" in "LGBTQIA."

After all, in 2005, SpongeBob Squarepants creator Stephen Hillenburg told Reuters, per People, that he never intended for SpongeBob or his best friend Patrick Starfish "to be gay."

"I consider them to be almost asexual," he explained. "We're just trying to be funny and this has nothing to do with the show."

After causing a frenzy on Twitter over SpongeBob's sexuality, Nickelodeon also turned off the comments or replies to their tweet.

According to Twitter, only those who were followed by the network on the social media platform or those who were mentioned in the tweet were able to reply to it.

"Announcing Spongebob being gay then turning comments off cause it ain't no debate>>>," wrote one user on Twitter. "Nickelodeon SNAPPED."

"Spongebob gay? I mean he literally had a baby with Patrick," wrote someone on Twitter, alongside screenshot's of the episode they were reffering to.

Another Twitter user said, "y'all are shocked spongebob gay? he's been hinting at it for years."

SpongeBob Squarepants premiered on May 1, 1999. The show ran for 12 seasons.

The show's creator Hillenburg died in Nov. 2018.