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DNA Magazine (Australia), July 2002
Singapore, Singapore
Blocked at every turn by a stubbornly conservative
government, Singapore's gays are playing a subtle game
of social subversion as they work towards recognition
and acceptance, stepping around their opponents rather
than resorting to the confrontational clashes that have
elsewhere marked the fight for gay rights. Tim Cribb
reports.
The beach, if you can call it that, is a dusty strip
bordered by barely lapping water of dubious chemistry,
but the sun's hot and there is a breeze of sorts, and
there are families picnicking under the lush trees while
young men in short shorts and gleaming with sweat hurl
themselves about the dirty sand.
Sid, 19, a Singaporean Chinese who speaks with an
American accent, swigs from a bottle of cold water and
wipes a wet palm across his smooth brown chest.
"Being gay in Singapore, you have to be discreet,
but I'm enjoying life," he said.
This Sunday afternoon on the beach at Sentosa, a man-made
islet and theme park in the lee of Singapore's hulking
oil refineries, are some 30 gay men belting around volleyballs.
There are no banners announcing that the weekly gathering
is organised by Adventurers Like Us, a GLBT social group
set up in June 1999.
Less than 100 metres away, the Ministry of Finance
Family Day outing is oblivious to the fact that there
are no women watching this group of men, though the
shrieking might suggest otherwise to the near-sighted.
"We're just playing volleyball," said Sid. "It's not
like we're having a mass orgy on the beach."
It is not actually illegal to be a homosexual in Singapore,
but Section 377 and 377A specifically make sexual acts
between men a criminal offence, punishable by up to
10 year's imprisonment (see box).
Thomas, sitting out a game at Sentosa, said there
now "appears to be an unwritten government policy that
if it's in private between two consenting adults" then
homosexuality will be tolerated. And only if gays keep
quiet about the laws.
"Don't think we have not tried to talk about it,"
Thomas said, pointing to an attempt by the informal
gay and lesbian activist group People Like Us in May
2000 to get permission to hold a public forum on gay
issues. The government denied the permit, but the issue
attracted local and regional publicity, effectively
achieved its objective.
"Homosexuality is a taboo in Singapore, but people
are opening up to gays and everything," Sid said. "Right
now, honestly, I'm pretty closeted. But I hang out with
gay guys and we go to clubs and I don't feel too restricted."
Sid, on weekend leave from the compulsory two-and-a-half
years of national service in the Singapore armed forces,
said he hasn't told the army he's gay, mainly because
that would have landed him in a clerical post and he
likes rappelling out of helicopters as Ranger.
Nor has he come out to his parents and family, but
that is more a question that goes as much to being a
young gay man as being Chinese, which carries with it
two major taboos - no-one talks about death or sex.
"I'm the youngest in the family, the only son, so
it's pretty difficult for me to say 'Hey mum, hey dad,
I'm gay'. It takes time. You have to plan certain things
and tell them at the right time. I'm 19, coming on 20,
so I don't think it's the right time to tell them yet."
He doesn't consider his parents to be conservative.
"Generally, that's the Asian culture. Chinese from the
older generation expect you to marry. My parents are
not that conventional. They are liberal about certain
things. They don't really push me about getting married
and having babies and giving them grandsons and granddaughters."
Sid said Singapore is changing, but it could take
"another 10 years for the government to say 'we can
accept there are homosexuals'".
However, he has no plans to live overseas, unlike
other gay Singaporeans, who feel they would be more
accepted in the United States or Australia. "I'm satisfied
with Singapore. It's my home and I don't see why I should
emigrate."
The official line in Singapore is that gays will be
tolerated so long as they don't openly challenge the
conservative status quo that, on the surface, strictly
regulates behavior in the tiny city state.
Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew, the founding father
of modern Singapore and an outspoken advocate on the
world stage of "Asian Values", made his position clear
in response to a question on CNN in 1998 from a gay
Singaporean, who asked how he fit into the big picture.
"It's not a matter which I can decide or any government
can decide," said Lee. "It's a question of what a society
considers acceptable. But what we are doing as a government
is to leave people to live their own lives so long as
they don't impinge on other people. I mean, we don't
harass anybody."
Stuart Koe, the 29-year-old publisher of the Asian
gay and lesbian web magazine fridae.com, said Lee's
answer was "just an excuse" not to push for changes
at the judicial or government administrative level.
"There's no reason to doubt what he says. That may
be what he believes, but it isn't necessarily true about
Singapore society, which is a lot more tolerant than
you may be led to believe."
After seven year's of education in the United States,
Koe returned to Singapore in 1995 and said one of the
first things that struck him was how young the gay scene
was, literally: "They're all boys, there are no gay
men - everyone was in their early 20s."
"Now these people are in their early 30s," Koe said.
"This is the first cohort of gays and lesbians who are
in a position to be out, who are in a position to be
comfortable enough with themselves at an early enough
age, that Singapore has seen. Of course there are exceptions,
but this is the first major cohort."
Koe said it is heartening to see now that gay Singaporeans
are more accepting of themselves at 15 and 16, due in
no small part to the Internet, which has helped show
them "there is a whole world of gay men out there" even
before they step into their first gay bar. "They don't
feel the isolation that I felt, many of us felt, when
we were growing up," Koe said. "This is in less than
one generation after mine."
Koe reckons that acceptance of gays in Singapore society
will come with time, and that thinking underlies his
strategy of dealing with being gay in a country that
technically make him a criminal.
"Gay life in Singapore is flourishing. It's far from
being underground anymore, and slowly becoming widely
accepted by the mainstream. And really, that's the best
strategy for the survival of the community in Singapore.
It's to say, look, we nothing hide. We contribute to
the economy like anyone else. We just so happen to be
gay or lesbian. Accept us as part of society because
we are living amongst you anyway. Don't shut us out
because we are all citizens of Singapore and our sexuality
really shouldn't make a difference."
Koe said that rather than challenge the laws head
on, gays need to secure public recognition that "yes,
we do exist".
"Legal recognition will follow. But for now, I don't
accept that 'society is too conservative'. Gays and
lesbians are better accepted by Singapore society than
our leaders care to admit."
Koe acknowledges the efforts of political activists
like Alex Au, head of the activist group People Like
Us (PLU), who prefers a more confrontational approach.
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