Authorities in Singapore banned Archie comics for showing a gay wedding.
According to P. Nash Jenkins at Time, the ban is a result of a crackdown on publications which depict homosexuality. Singapore’s Media Development Authority (MDA) guidelines forbid material containing “alternative lifestyles or deviant sexual practices,” including homosexuality, group sex and sadomasochism among others.
The third installment in Archie: The Married Life, one of several spinoff series in the multifarious Archie universe, features the wedding of Kevin Keller, a gay character whose creation in 2010 earned writer Dan Parent a GLAAD Media Award last year.
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“[We]… found its content to be in breach of guidelines because of its depiction of the same sex marriage of two characters in the comic,” the MDA said in a statement. “We thus informed the local distributor not to import or distribute the comic in retail outlets.”
The book was actually censored earlier this year by the MDA, but news of Archie’s ban is just now surfacing. Archie’s creators have embraced more gay-friendly subject matter recently. Earlier this week, fans learned Archie, the beloved main character of the series, would die during a shooting, in an effort to protect the same gay character from the wedding issue.
Image via Archie comics.