People think Nickelodeon just officially revealed that Spongebob is LGBTQ+

This year, Pride month looks a little different than normal, for obvious reasons.

But now Nickelodeon have given everyone a much-needed pick-me-up by revealing that cartoon icon SpongeBob SquarePants is a member of the LGBTQ+ community.

How do we know this? Well, the network marked Pride month with a post on Twitter, saying that it was "Celebrating #Pride with the LGBTQ+ community and their allies this month and every month."

The accompanying artwork showed SpongeBob, Schwoz Schwartz from Henry Danger, and Korra from Avatar: The Legend of Korra, all in different rainbow colours.

It’s a little confusing because it’s unclear whether Nickelodeon were referring to the "community" or "allies" when it came to the specific characters pictured. But it’s long been suspected that Spongebob is gay, so much so that furious right wingers have led boycotts against the cartoon in the past on this basis.

Spongebob has also emerged as popular meme fodder on LGBTQ+ Twitter in recent years, adding to the vibe that even if he’s never come out explicitly lots of people clearly see him that way.

On Twitter, people were living for Spongebob's coming out moment.

Though apparently the show's creator Stephen Hillenburg said in 2000 that Spongebob is asexual, a group which forms part of the queer community. So just because Spongebob might be LGBTQ+ it's important to note that he's not necessarily gay. Asexual identities are valid and shouldn't be erased!

Regardless, Trump picks Pride month to roll back health protections against the trans community, it's about time there was a tiny bit of good news, even if it is about a fictional sea sponge who lives in a pineapple.