A story book about gay penguins, pushed with taxpayer funding to young children in the UK, is the most complained-about book in America.
The book, And Tango Makes Three, is being promoted in UK schools as part of a teacher training pack produced by homosexual campaign group, Stonewall.
But in the US, it is the number one most frequently challenged book according to the American Library Association (ALA).
Lonely
Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell’s controversial book claims to be based on a true story about a pair of male penguins in New York’s Central Park Zoo who raise a baby penguin.
But last year a scientific study found that same-sex penguin ‘pairs’ are not homosexual, they are just lonely.
The book has featured on the ALA’s banned books list for past five years and topped the list in 2007 and 2008.
Banned
The ALA run an annual Banned Books Week to highlight books which library users have requested to be banned.
According to a news release by ALA: “There have been dozens of attempts to remove And Tango Makes Three from school and public library shelves.
“Those seeking to remove the book have described it as ‘unsuited for age group,’ and cited ‘religious viewpoint’ and ‘homosexuality’ as reasons for challenging the book.”
Protest
In 2008, the book was removed from some primary schools in the UK after parents protested.
Around 90 parents from two schools in Bristol gathered to discuss the issue with teachers.
A governor at one of the schools, Farooq Saddique, said at the time: “The agenda was to reduce homophobic bullying and all the parents said they were not against that side of it, but families were saying to us ‘our child is coming home and talking about same-sex relationships, when we haven’t even talked about heterosexual relationships with them yet’.”
Angry
Mr Saddique said parents were angry that they had not been consulted on the introduction of the materials.
Some homosexual activists have said that schools are required to use such storybooks because of new ‘gay rights’ laws on the provision of goods and services.
But The Christian Institute won a ruling in the High Court in September 2007 explicitly stating that the laws do not apply to the school curriculum.