Christmas Specials | Free speech, gay rights and waterfowl

A tale of penguins and prejudice is a parable of modern America

When two male penguins hatched an egg in Central Park, they set off an enduring controversy

An illustration of two penguins facing each others with beaks together and flippers touching an egg. The negative space between them forms a heart.
Illustration: Noma Bar
|NEW YORK

Once upon a time in America there lived a pair of penguins called Roy and Silo. They were just like the other penguin couples in their zoo, except that they were both boys. Together they sat on an egg until a chick popped out. Later two men wrote a story about them—igniting a controversy which, almost two decades later, is still blazing.

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This article appeared in the Christmas Specials section of the print edition under the headline “Long march of the penguins”

From the December 23rd 2023 edition

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