Dennis Prager is not happy about The New Yorker's latest cover.

The syndicated columnist and radio talk show host took to National Review Online on July 2 to blast The New Yorker for featuring “Sesame Street” characters Bert and Ernie snuggling on a couch, watching a TV that shows the nine members of the U.S. Supreme Court. The New Yorker released its cover following the Court's decisions to strike down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and dismiss California's Proposition 8 case.

According to Prager, the cover indicates that “the Left has an agenda to deprive children of their innocence”:

But for the Left, Bert and Ernie (and whatever else the Left can get its ideological hands on) are transformed into vehicles for a left-wing cause. And no cause animates the Left these days more than the social advancement of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and the transgendered (LGBTs).

One consequence has been the robbing of children's innocence by prematurely sexualizing them. Rendering Bert and Ernie as gay is only the most recent example.

Prager then draws up a list of horribles that result from the LGBT rights movement, including sex education programs, an increased focus on sexual harassment committed by schoolchildren, and a California law that promotes the inclusion of historically significant LGBT figures in school textbooks.

Prager - who previously defended discrimination against LGBT couples seeking to adopt children - insists that the move toward greater equality for LGBT Americans - as reflected in The New Yorker cover - isn't really about promoting acceptance and basic rights. It's all a part of something much more sinister. He intones:

All these policies have been enacted in the name of tolerance, protecting girls, and promoting health. But the Left always has a noble reason for its damaging policies, even when they involve something that when taken away can never be returned: children's sexual innocence.