The Wire creator David Simon is putting a pair of Russian streaming services on blast.

In a heated social media post Friday, the writer-producer said, "Have been informed that the two Russian streaming services offering The Wire in that country have systematically removed scenes and dialogue indicating that Omar Little is homosexual."

Omar, the charismatic stick-up man played by the late Michael K. Williams, is one of the sprawling HBO drama's most indelible characters, and was depicted as openly gay from his very first episode. Simon continued, "Be advised, you backward f---s, that Omar Little of Baltimore, Maryland is unapologetically gay, and, though fictional, infinitely more badass and tactically effective than all of the conscripts and paroled thugs you've sent into the meat-grinder in Ukraine. Not that they'd do much better invading West Baltimore."

hbo

Reps for Simon didn't immediately respond to Entertainment Weekly's request for further comment.

This isn't the first time Russian media has been accused of censoring LGBTQ content. A raft of anti-LGBTQ legislation signed into law by President Vladimir Putin in 2022 led the following year to Roskomnadzor, the country's media regulator, suggesting streaming services remove titles like Brokeback Mountain and Call Me by Your Name from their libraries.

While shooting The Wire, Williams embraced his character's sexuality, even pushing for more gay scenes. He wrote in his posthumously completed memoir that "everyone was dancing around" the "intimacy issue" between Little and Brandon Wright, the character's boyfriend, played by Michael Kevin Darnall. "There was lots of touching hair and rubbing lips and things like that. I felt like if we were going to do this, we should go all in. I think the directors were scared, and I said to one of them, 'You know gay people f---, right?'"

Williams's final two screen appearances came posthumously, in the 2023 releases Breaking, a thriller starring John Boyega, and Surrounded, a Western starring Letitia Wright. Simon created several acclaimed series after The Wire's bow in 2008, including The Deuce, The Plot Against America, and We Own This City.