I know where I stand on this issue, but I'll let you decide.
The town of Tuszyn in central Poland was looking for a public face for a local playground. Someone suggested Winnie the Pooh.
Then things got freaky. One of the town councillors started recording, I suppose on his smart phone.
The problem with that bear is it doesn’t have a complete wardrobe.
--Councillor Ryszard Cichy, 46
Apparently fictional bears in Poland have more fashion sense.
Ours is dressed from head to toe, unlike Pooh who is only dressed from the waist up.
It doesn’t wear underpants because it doesn’t have a sex. It’s a hermaphrodite.
--another councillor
This is very disturbing but can you imagine! The author was over 60 and cut his [Pooh's] testicles off with a razor blade because he had a problem with his identity.
--Councillor Hanna Jachimska
I'm not sure where that story came from, but it is not something I have ever read. As far as I know, the stuffed bear who was the inspiration for Pooh was never anatomically correct.
Pooh and the gang (NY City Public Library)
The upshot is that Winnie, being of dubious sexuality (either intersex or transgender, or just plain gay, is no longer a candidate to represent the park.
If you ask me, the bear with the full wardrobe is quite suspicious.
The Washington Post's Tim Herrera summarizes:
1. In general, bears on the whole do not wear pants. This is a mostly consistent law of nature (with notable exceptions, h/t the circus etc.); but if one were to take a survey of bears in nature, one would most likely find that the vast majority are not wearing pants. So the fact that Winnie wears a shirt actually suggests he's quite conservative in nature.
2. Winnie has already proven he can be trusted with children. In most of their interactions, Winnie and Christopher Robin are without supervision, and this never seems to become a problem.
3. The genital issue is a little murkier. There's really no way to prove one way or the other whether Milne performed said surgical operation on Winnie's nether regions, so we'll call it a wash.
4. Winnie the Pooh is a known honey thief. Just seems like a missed opportunity here. Although UPI seized it, reporting: "Winnie-the-Pooh is being run out of town, and it's not for taking all the honey."
For the record, because it might help set some people straight, as t were:
Bert and Ernie are not gay.
They are not gay, they are not straight, they are puppets.They don't exist below the waist.
--Gary Knell, Sesame Street Workshop, 1994
Bert and Ernie are best friends. They were created to teach pre-schoolers that people can be good friends with those who are very different from themselves. Even though they are identified as male characters and possess many human traits and characteristics (as most Sesame Street Muppets do), they remain puppets, and do not have a sexual orientation.
--Sesame Street Facebook page
Tinky Winky was not designed to be a "gay role model."
Tinky Winky was purple, had a triangle on his head and carried a purse. Enough said.
On the other hand, Sponge Bob and Patrick are surely a couple, Velma was certainly a lesbian, and Inspector Gadget goes both ways.