Shirtless Gay Kiss on British Soap Opera Sparks Controversy

The long-running British soap opera Coronation Street received a slew of complaints and homophobic messages after airing a scene in which two of its male characters shared a kiss while shirtless, reports the Mirror.

Though the scene was tame in comparison to similar scenes shared between heterosexual characters on the show, complaints that surfaced after the televised kiss between Todd Grimshaw (Bruno Langley) and Marcus Dent (Charlie Condou) claimed the scene was "sexually suggestive" and inappropriate to air before 8 p.m., as many children were likely to be watching TV at that time.

Shortly after the complaints were received by the creators of the series, the U.K. Office of Communications revealed it had received several complaints over the same-sex content in the series as well. While the broadcast watchdog originally stated it would investigate whether Coronation Street had violated any guidelines with the controversial episode, it later retracted the statement and confirming officials were satisfied and no investigation would take place.

"The vast majority of the audience have no trouble with this," an insider told the Mirror. "It's real."

Coronation Street, which debuted on British television in 1960, isn't the only long-running soap opera to currently be courting controversy with LGBT-inclusive storylines. The American series Days of Our Livesmade history earlier this month when fan-favorite gay couple Will (Guy Wilson) and Sonny (Freddie Smith) became the first same-sex couple to be engaged on the series, in a special Valentine's Day episode.