A FAMOUS gay penguin at New York’s Central Park Zoo has reignited the “culture wars” over homosexuality by going straight.

Silo, a chinstrap penguin, had been in a six-year relationship with another 18-year-old male called Roy. The pair even raised a chick together when their keepers gave them a donated egg, after they tried unsuccessfully to hatch a rock.

The widely publicised story of the two males bringing up a baby, named Tango, made them gay icons. Their same-sex household was cited by liberals as a corrective to the traditional “family values” displayed by Emperor penguins in the hugely popular new documentary, The March of the Penguins, which has been hailed by Christian conservatives.

“If Emperor penguins are sending us a message about heterosexual marriage, then what are Roy and Silo doing?” The New York Times asked in an editorial. Their relationship even became the subject of a children’s book, sold at the zoo’s gift shop, entitled And Tango Makes Three.

But Silo walked out on Roy for a girlfriend from California called Scrappy, which moved to Central Park from San Diego’s SeaWorld. The new heterosexual couple built a nest and hang out by the pool, while Roy broods alone.

Liberals can take solace that there are still four other same-sex couples among the zoo’s 65 birds. Among them is Tango, which has paired for the last two seasons with Tazuni.

Times Recommends

• Michael Jackson: Not the final chapter
• Indian Army spends10m rupees on golf buggies
• Sacha Baron Cohen forced to tone down Brüno