Penguins threaten Singapore
What should two guy penguins do when faced with a baby penguin? Apparently, according to the Singapore National Library Board, they should throw the baby out with the bath water. No, ideas like taking care of the baby and raising it to adulthood should never, ever be entertained. Those ideas should be discarded. Rejected. Immediately renounced. Because you know what? Ideas like those promote (gasp) homosexuality.
When faced with a complaint from a library-goer about the gay-friendly content of a book, the librarians at the NLB took swift action and jettisoned the book, and two others like it. Not only were those books pulled from the shelves, the library even disclosed that its intentions were to reduce the copies into pulp. In other words, to obliterate them out of existence.
Of the three, the example most held up in the press was "And Tango Makes Three", which, apparently, is all about two male penguins who raise and take care of Tango as a couple (I have no budget to order Tango from abroad so this precis is cobbled from news reports).
Tango author Justin Richardson, in an interview by the Online Citizen (www.theonlinecitizen.com) admits that the book is about helping to explain gay couples and their kids to other children, an age-appropriate tool. So there's no doubting that the content is really about two gay men, and that the book is aimed at children, to "influence" their brains.
Which is probably why the book is so dangerous to Singapore, because it makes acceptable what is, on its statute books, a criminal act. And so, the decision to make the books unavailable to its citizens.
This is blatant thought control, an attempt to curtail the free exchange of ideas. It doesn't want little kids accepting the fact (and it is an undisputed fact) that there are many relationships out there that are of the same sex, and these relationships involve children, whether naturally produced or alternately procured. The Singapore government doesn't like the idea that this is actually "normal" in other countries, because, what a tragedy if its citizens find out.
What's the danger, one might think? Well, informed citizens are capable of critical thought, and we don't want our meek constituents to suddenly start asking why an accepted family model in progressive countries is criminalized, or at the very least, marginalized, in their own country.
Not content with that, another agency of the Singapore government has decided to ban the 2013 Archie comic book The Married Life Book Three, which depicts the gay wedding of Archie's friend, Kevin Kline. According to the Singapore Straits Times, the nation's Media Development Authority (MDA) had decided that the "theme of the comic was not in line with social norms and is in breach of existing guidelines".
Bookseller giant Kinokuniya therefore cannot carry this particular comic in stock, and graphic novel enthusiasts must, as an alternative (wait for this!) go to the library to read about gay weddings!
In an ironic twist, the national library has reportedly four copies of this comic in circulation. However, all four copies were on loan (which could be good, or bad, depending on the intentions of the borrowers). Meanwhile, the NLB will "review" how it suddenly has hot potatoes in stock.
Government censorship is being deployed here. Blatantly. This is a battle for the minds of Singapore's constituents, and one wonders what the interests of the state are in this war. Why is it so important for Singapore to deny the legitimacy of gay weddings and their offspring? What national interest is served?
Is Singapore merely defending its existing criminal law, one inherited from its British colonizers who have since moved on to other, more progressive positions, and carrying such law to its logical conclusion? Or is this, as is normally the case, another knee-jerk reaction to the homosexual threat to its machismo?
If libraries are deemed to serve as the repositories of ideas, then censorship should be the last to rear its ugly head here. Singapore must let its citizens have all the information they need, so they can make informed decisions. Then all Singapore needs to do is to implement those informed decisions, and not those borne by the bureaucracy's own prejudices.
Meanwhile, in the latest issue that came out on sale this week, Archie will take a bullet for gay friend Kevin during an assassination attempt. Will noble acts of heterosexuals in defense of their gay friends be anathema to Singapore's censors?
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