Books With Gay Themes As Bad As Porn: Roger Wong

The leader of a group which has successfully managed to persuade officials to remove children's book containing LGBT themes from the city's libraries has compared such material to softcore pornography.

Roger Wong, who heads the Family School Sexual Orientation Discrimination Ordinance Concern Group, told RTHK that parents would never expect to see such highly controversial content in public libraries.

"Do you agree to place a Playboy in a children's library? This is obvious right. Or a book talking about co-habitation? Or any other different lifestyle? It's a matter of expectation about children's libraries. This is the common social expectation," he said.

"Whenever a parent brings along children to a public library they are assuming something. They are assuming those books in the children's library are okay, they will talk about something good in general."

Wong, who is the father of prominent pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong, did not explain why he thought any depiction of gay people in a book for children is akin to pornography.

But he told RTHK's Richard Pyne that it is "beyond dispute" that homosexuality is a very controversial issue in Hong Kong.

"Whenever you ask somebody, if she or he has some religion or if he or she is some traditional person, or he or she is somebody who has some knowledge about homosexuality, they would disagree with this kind of lifestyle."

Concerns groups have criticised the decision by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department to remove 10 children's books from public display, including the novels "And Tango Makes Three", which features two gay penguins, and "The Boy In The Dress" by well-known British comedian David Walliams.

On Wednesday, LGBT rights group Big Love Alliance said the government had "appeased a hate group". But Wong said he would counter such criticism by saying the move had also been met with approval by many parents he had encountered since.