Dear #WearWhite
Nobody cares.
About your antics to illustrate some kind of ‘pushback’ against Pink Dot. About your majoritarian argument of ‘look at us we are greater in number so we get to decide what kind of society we want for everyone’. You think looking like a bunch of hissy, reactive drama queens endears you to people? And why do you have to be so lazy? You have an entire year to organise whatever to set forth your position–you can stage a ‘One man, One woman, One family, One People, One Nation, One Singapore’ festival or a ‘Straight & Lovin’ It’ carnival or an ‘OMOW, no HOMO’ acronym slogan competition or even a mass wedding (why let the Moonies have all the fun?). Who’s stopping you? But you’d rather ride on the publicity for Pink Dot and squeeze your faces into the camera. Because who cares if 99% of the stuff in movies, TV programmes, magazines, advertisements etc all uphold and celebrate those heteronormative values you hold so dear? That one single day in a year when LGBT’s could appear in broad pink daylight in a safe, affirming space? No way, they must be bleached out like a stain! But I guess you’re kiasu and mean-spirited that way.
The problem with these kinds of manufactured clashes is not that Singapore is supposedly becoming ‘more polarised’. The problem is that it leads people to subscribe to binary thinking. Pink versus white. With us or against us. But gay people aren’t anti-family. Actual one man-one woman families (some bringing their kids) are, in fact, turning up for Pink Dot. And among those wearing pink there are many who are also religious. It’s not about a pink team on one side and a white team on the other in a tug-of-war for their souls. Because people know how to integrate their multiple identities and reconcile the contradictions within themselves. It’s what makes us human.
In writing two paragraphs it might seem like I actually give a toss about your chromatic sartorial tit-for-tat but getting back to my main point, nobody cares. Really.
Source: Alfian Sa’at
