Monday night's episode of Coronation Street saw couple Todd Grimshaw and Billy Mahew engage in a passionate kiss in a hotel room, and it seems some viewers weren't happy about it and have since complained.
However gay right campaigner Panti (Rory O'Neill) has spoken out to defend the soap, telling the Irish Daily Star: “If it was a straight couple and the scene was exactly the same and you weren’t going to complain about that then you’ve no other reason to complain about a gay couple.
"If the only reason you’re complaining because it is a gay couple and it is before the watershed, then grow up.
"If they were showing full on sex, then fine, complain but if you are complaining because of the gender of people involved then grow up."
While Daniel Brockleband, who plays Billy Mahew, also took to Twitter defending the scene, tweeting;
Had many angry tweets saying "I'm disgusted my kids saw men kiss on tv"
I'm disgusted they left it up tv to teach their kids how love works— Daniel Brocklebank (@Dan_Brocklebank) September 5, 2016
An ITV spokesperson has since released a statement saying; "We approach the portrayal of homosexual relationships in the same way as heterosexual relationships, and we carefully consider all scenes in our soaps, and their suitability for pre-watershed audiences.
"We do not believe that the content of [the] episode was inappropriately scheduled, or exceeded generally accepted standards for content broadcast at this time."
