TV SHOW FINED FOR SHOWING “NORMAL” GAYS

A television station in Singapore has been fined for showing a gay couple as “normal” in a home makeover show broadcast in January.

The Media Development Authority, which regulates state television, fined MediaCorp TV $11,000, for depicting the couple with their adopted child, saying that it “promoted a gay lifestyle.”

In the episode of Find and Design the host helps a gay couple transform their game room into a new nursery for their baby.

The regulator said that it was concerned that the programme showed the family “in a way which normalises their gay lifestyle and unconventional family setup.”

“This is in breach of the Free-to-Air TV Programme Code which disallows programmes that promote, justify or glamourise gay lifestyles,” said the authority on its website.

Earlier this month another Singapore television channel operator, StarHub Cable Vision, was fined for showing a music video which depicts two girls kissing.

In that case, the operator was fined $7,200, with the Media Development Authority saying that “romanticised scenes of two girls kissing were shown and it portrayed the relationship as acceptable.”

While gay sex is illegal in Singapore, with the possibility of a two year prison sentence, LGBT people are rarely prosecuted.