And Tango Got Banned (And Now Archie Too)
Yes, you can read about Hitler’s hideous crimes in World War 2, you can learn about the parts of a bomb, you can know about the love triangle between a expressionless girl, a glittering vampire and a ferocious werewolf, but you can’t read a story about two gay penguins raising up a chick. Welcome to Singapore. There has been a huge ongoing uproar in the Lion City after three children’s books, The White Swan Express: A Story About Adoption (about Chinese orphans being adopted by a mix of straight, gay, and single parents), Who’s In My Family: All About Our Families (which portrays many kinds of families, including gay ones), and And Tango Makes Three (a true story about two male penguins at a zoo who adopted a penguin chick), were withdrawn by Singapore’s National Library Board (NLB) following the behest of a single complaining patron, Mr Teo Kai Loon. Yes, just one, single, complain is enough. As a Singaporean, I feel utterly ashamed right now, and I am very well speechless as to how the clean, developed, futuristic city where I …