Roy and Silo: two male penguins.  Singapore has banned their biography. Having missed out on female partners in a limited population (the New York Zoo), these two guys sat on an egg their keeper gave them when he realised that they too wanted to be fathers. He noticed their forlorn behaviour when they lost out in the love stakes with real chicks (so to speak). Sure, they seemed to prefer their own company, but is that unusual? Is it unknown even in a dressing room during the World Cup?

Do two male penguins bringing up a chick mean they are “gay”? What about the keeper who gave them the egg? Isn’t he also the culprit in this allegedly dastardly tale?

Take care: follow this story through. The same zoo now reports that one of them has now mated and bought up other chicks. Great. He was obviously cured.

Of course all this happens in the natural environment: the zoo, where normality reigns supreme.

I read the book. It seems fairly innocuous. It is certainly not the best-written children’s book. Simon and Schuster, where are your editors? Surely writing quality is an issue as well?  In an age of unedited social media, remember this: STAG. Sadly, Today, Anything Goes.

Did the writers of “And Tango Makes Three” have a gay agenda in writing their book? They wrote about something that happened. Tens of thousands of New Yorkers saw it happen. New York did not close the penguin enclosure. Perhaps they should have. Of course right-wingers objected to the gay theme when the book came out. Singapore pulped the books after a few complaints.

Divisive? Alienating? Contentious?  Foolhardy? Injudicious? Certainly, some, in Singapore including Pastor Khong, see the book in this light and his thousands of followers will dutifully toe the line creating more dissent and angst.

If books are to be banned because they have an agenda or cause adverse reactions in society, we’d better start banning a few more starting with a few religious texts; after all, these ancient tomes contain arguably the most contentious writing in history and divide rather than unite the world.

Who really cares if two menguins hatch an egg?

“Mummy, why were there two daddies in this story?’

That is the point at which dissension and alienation occurs; not when things actually happen or someone reports it or writes about it.

On reflection, it might have been better to have shot the penguins.