| Agence France-Presse
December 9, 2004
Singapore rejects plan for gay Christmas party
SINGAPORE (AFP) - A planned Christmas party organised
by Asia's most popular gay website is "against
the moral values" of most Singaporeans, police
said Thursday as they slapped a ban on the festivities.
Police also indicated the future of the Nation Party,
one of Asia's biggest annual gay and lesbian festivals
held every August, was in jeopardy after complaints
about public displays of affection at the last event.
"Police's assessment is that the event is likely
to be organised as a gay party which is contrary to
public interest in general," a police statement
said in regards to the proposed Christmas Day party,
called SnowBall.04.
"Singapore is still, by and large, a conservative
and traditional society. Hence, the police cannot approve
any application for an event which goes against the
moral values of a large majority of Singaporeans."
Jungle Media, the Singapore subsidiary of Hong Kong-based
fridae.com, had applied to police for a license to organise
SnowBall.04 to run all night at a disused nightclub
from 9:00 pm on December 25.
The police decision was a shock to fridae.com, which
had organised similar Christmas parties in 2002 and
2003 as well as the increasingly successful Nation parties,
which have been held since 2001.
"In the four years that we have been working with
the police... not once have we been made aware that
there was anything illegal about our events," fridae.com's
chief executive, Stuart Koe, said in a statement.
But the police said it had banned SnowBall.04 because
Jungle Media had previously given assurances the Nation
events would not be organised as gay parties. |
