A graphic posted by the Housing and Development Board (HDB) on its Facebook page on May 14 depicting a husband and wife drying their laundry on bamboo poles was recently amended after some netizens raised concerns that the two resembled a same-sex couple.
The original graphic shows two individuals in one panel — both who looked like women — helping one another hang their newly-washed clothes on bamboo poles outside a kitchen window with the caption ‘My parents at age 29.’
The second panel depicts the same couple using HDB’s upgraded retractable clothes drying rack to hang their clothes with the caption above ‘My parents at age 65.’
This graphic was to highlight the upgrading works under HDB’s Home Improvement Programme.
However, it drew comments from some netizens confused about the captions and the cartoon, and how both parents look like women.
On Thursday (June 16), anti-vaccine campaigner Iris Koh uploaded a Facebook post on the original graphic questioning why HDB was featuring two mothers in the graphic.