Singapore bans gay-themed books
AP July 12, 2014, 10:10 pm
A children's book inspired by a real-life story of two male penguins raising a baby chick in New York's zoo has been deemed inappropriate by state-run Singapore libraries.
The conservative city-state's information minister, Yaacob Ibrahim, said on Saturday he supported the decision to destroy all copies alongside two other titles because the prevailing norms in Singapore support teaching children about conventional families.
The National Library Board, which runs 26 public libraries in Singapore, says it will destroy the books.
They include And Tango Makes Three, about a male-male penguin couple in the Central Park Zoo; The White Swan Express: A Story About Adoption, which involves a lesbian couple; and Who's In My Family: All About Our Families.
The decision has triggered online petitions to spare the books.
