Singapore: Libraries pull books with gay themes

National Library Board says it chooses ‘pro-family’ titles

After a Facebook group lodged a protest about gay-themed children’s books, Singapore’s National Library Board (NLB) pulled two titles, saying that it observes a “pro-family” policy when making its selections, Pink News reports.

And Tango Makes Three, a well-known story about two male penguins who raised a chick at New York’s Central Park Zoo, and another book, The White Swan Express, which, in part, deals with the adoption of Chinese babies by different families, including a same-sex couple, were withdrawn from libraries following the complaint by We Are Against Pink Dot, a group opposed to the country’s annual LGBT festival.

While a number of people have written letters to the library board to protest the withdrawal of the books, in addition to the circulation of a petition calling for the titles to be reinstated, the NLB has indicated there are no plans to put the books back on the shelves.

Meanwhile, the Pink Dot Festival drew record-breaking crowds this year, with a reported 26,00o people participating in the face of protests by Christian and Muslim groups in the leadup to the event.

Natasha Barsotti is originally from Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean. She had high aspirations of representing her country in Olympic Games sprint events, but after a while the firing of the starting gun proved too much for her nerves. So she went off to university instead. Her first professional love has always been journalism. After pursuing a Master of Journalism at UBC , she began freelancing at Xtra West — now Xtra Vancouver — in 2006, becoming a full-time reporter there in 2008.

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