Gay Kiss Censorship Reversed in iPad App

Apple has reversed its decision to censor images of two men kissing from a graphic-novel app for the iPad based on The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde.

According to The Big Money, an Apple spokeswoman called the decision to block the panels a "mistake" and said that app developers would be invited to resubmit their original drawings.

The company came under fire for censoring images of a gay kiss in the Oscar Wilde app and for blocking displays of nudity in an app based on the novel Ulysses.

The Oscar Wilde app is based on the 2001 print graphic novel from Belgian comic artist Tom Bouden. Kevin Kelleher, a writer for The Big Money, examined the original images and found that "there are other panels of men in underwear that weren't blacked out, which led me to conclude that what really bothered Apple's censors was the idea of two men kissing."

"The message that these black boxes send to Apple's customers isn't 'Hey, kids, don't look at porn,'" he writes. "The message is that the sight of two men kissing is a bad thing and that homophobia is a good thing. For allowing Apple to send that message, Steve Jobs should be ashamed of himself."