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Bryan Kwa: Stop Stigmatising Sexual Minorities

Last Friday’s letter (“Distinguish between helping gays and supporting an agenda” by Mr Leo Hee Khian) cautioned against affirming same-sex attraction.

Mr Leo wrote that in Denmark, where there is same-sex marriage, “married homosexuals have been found to die at an age about 20 years younger than their heterosexual counterparts”.

This statistic is disputed. It is drawn from a paper published by the Family Research Institute, a partisan organisation associated with the Christian right and branded as a hate group.

Its founder Paul Cameron has been censured by numerous professional organisations. He was also dropped from membership in the American Psychological Association for violating its ethics code.

The American Journal of Public Health published a study of mortality among Danes in same-sex marriages, which concluded that “claims of drastically increased overall mortality in gay men and lesbians appear unjustified”.

In fact, supporting gay rights improves public health.

The New England Journal of Medicine published an editorial last month supporting same-sex marriage.

The doctors highlighted that “a fundamental tenet of all medical care is the acceptance of patients as they are, for who they are, with respect and without prejudice or personal agendas” and posited that “same-sex marriage should be accepted both as a matter of justice and as a measure that promotes health”.

Make no mistake, this is not about ideological standpoints. This is a public health issue; homophobia kills.

A study by Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, published in the journal Social Science & Medicine, found that LGB (lesbian, gay, bisexual) individuals who lived in communities with high levels of anti-gay prejudice have a shorter life expectancy, compared with their peers in the least prejudiced communities. The same study also found that the rates of suicide, homicide/violence and cardiovascular diseases were all substantially elevated among sexual minorities living within high-prejudice communities.

Considering such findings, how may the Government reconcile its heteronormative and heterosexist policies with the stated vision and mission of the Ministry of Health?

The science is clear. It is imperative that we stop stigmatising sexual minorities and start upholding their rights.

For all the moral grandstanding, surely we can agree that literally driving people to their death is unquestionably amoral.

Bryan Kwa Jie Wen

Source: www.straitstimes.com

May 19, 2015
Isteri Menderita Tiada Tempat Mengadu, Suami Panas Baran Dan Ringan Tangan

Inilah dia rahsia dari ‘Camelia’ yang saya telah udarakan. Beliau meminta pendapat dan nasihat anda:

“Saya telah bernikah nak masuk 2 tahun dan hanya berkenalan bersama suami seblom kami bernikah hanya 4 bulan. Kami berkahwin dan ini adalah perkahwinan yang kedua untuk the both of us dan masing2 ada anak sendiri.

Selepas berapa bulan berkahwin, kami sering bertengkar. Saya tak dapat berjumpa dengan anak2 saya kerana suami tidak suka akan mereka. Suami saya panas baran dan sering skali jalan tangan. Saya pulak kuat melawan kerana saya ingin menegak kan diri saya yang sering kali tidak bersalah.
Saya dilarang untuk bertemu dengan keluarga dan tidak dibenar kan ada apape komunikasi dengan mereka.

Suami sering menggertak untuk mencari yang lain dan sering menggeluarkan kata2 kesat & even let me feel so down dengan cacian dia. Worst, setiap kali saya menggamuk kerana tak tahan dengan sifat ego, sombong dan riak dia, saya akan dipukol teruk.

Kami dikurnia kan anak yang telah pon masok 6 bulan dan suami tetap bersifat demikian. Even when I am pregnant, saya dipukol tanpa belas kasihan & biler saya nak melahirkan anak dia nik fiza, he can even quarrel with me about the past.

Saya dah tak tahan dengan sikap dia fiza. Saya runsing, kalau setiap kali saya mahu pulang ke pangkuan keluarga saya dan tidak ingin bersama dia lagi, dia akan memukul saya dan mengugut saya yang dia akan berjumpa dengan bapa saya bawak perempuan. Saya tidak ingin menyusah kan bapa saya dan dia amat menyukai dengan suami saya cuma saya tak pernah cerita kepad bapa saya siapa sebenarnya suami saya kerana bapa saya jantung nya bukan larh begitu sihat.

Saya pernah dipukul di khalayak orang tapi tak siapa membantu. Mungkin kerana tidak ingin campor hal ruma tangga saya atau mungkin kerana takot akan muka benggis dan tattoo di badan suami.

He wasn’t like this before we got married and a few months after marriage. Saya runsing. Nak lari, tiada tempat menggadu as I’ve let down a few of my family yang dah tahu tentang kisah saya dan suro saya meninggal kan nya. Tapi setiap kali saya melihat wajah anak saya…. There is always that holds me back.

Kalau nak bercerita lagi fiza, memang tak kan habis. Banyak yang berlaku jadi saya pendek kan dan ringkas kan. I need help, seriously I do…..

Terima kasih fiza. Hope that you can give your pendapat too. Thanks.”

Source: Fiza O

May 19, 2015
Goh Meng Seng Registers The People’s Power Party

Former National Solidarity Party secretary-general and opposition politician Goh Meng Seng has registered a new political party named the “People’s Power Party” (PPP) yesterday with an eye on participating in the next general election.

Goh Meng Seng said during an interview with the media that he was disappointed with the current policies implemented by the government, and feels that the government should not always have the final say on public policy in Singapore.

He also said that the PPP would champion a form of democracy based on revolutionary Chinese leader Sun Yat Sen’s theory of democratic government. In Sun’s theory of democracy, government would be divided into five separate branches: the executive, legislative, judicial, the censorate, and the civil service system. The latter two branches primarily functioned as a check on the first three, which are the more familiar branches of government. They are also traditional branches of the Chinese government and functioned independently. The civil service had been around since the Han period and the censorate was created by the Hong Wu emperor at the beginning of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644).

According to Goh, Singaporeans will live better lives only when principles of democracy are upheld in Singapore. He says that the current system which centers political power into the hands of a few key persons is unsustainable.

Source: www.allsingaporestuff.com

May 19, 2015
Security Guard Jailed For Making Facebook Posts Inciting Religious Violence

A 28-year-old security guard has been jailed for three months after making Facebook posts inciting readers to religious violence.

Muhammad Shamin Mohamed Sidek made the two posts on Nov 29 last year after reading a news report of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in a dialogue on the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Wen Hsien said that Shamin’s posts used “graphic and evocative language” which “further encourages violence along… religious fault lines”.

She added that the reach of the accused’s words had been magnified by the accessibility of his Facebook platform.

In mitigation, Shamin said he had deactivated his Facebook account the same day after leaving police custody, and that the posts had been those of “a simple layman… venting in frustration”.

District Judge Shawn Ho called the accused’s posts a “grim reminder of how offenders can use technology to stoke the flames of violence… particularly given the current international, regional and domestic security climate”.

“It is infinitely better to prevent a breakdown in law, order and safety than to deal with an aftermath when untold and often irreparable damage has been done,” he said.

Shamin was also convicted of possessing contraband cigarettes, which were discovered during a police raid on his Tampines flat.

He admitted purchasing the 40 packs of Marlboro cigarettes knowing that their duties had not been paid. For this, he received a fine of $3,200, or 16 days’ jail if he defaults.

For making a document or electronic record containing an incitement to violence, he could have been jailed for up to five years, fined or both.

Source: www.straitstimes.com

May 19, 2015
Rail Corridor Turns Into Sins Avenue At Night

A spot along the Rail Corridor near Sungei Kadut Avenue has been turned into an outdoor brothel at night.

Men gawk at a handful of foreign women, who sit in rows. When a deal is struck, the woman guides her client into a narrow pathway carved out of the tall lalang grass.

TNP staked out the area on Wednesday and Thursday. Between 9pm and 10.30pm, we witnessed a steady stream of men going into the state-owned land.

One of them, who gave his name only as Salim, initially told TNP that he used the trail as a shortcut to Yew Tee MRT station.

When pressed further, the Bangladeshi in his late 20s said with a smile: “Inside, there are also Ah Muis (Hokkien for girls), so I take a look while on my way. But I never try them – there are many mosquitoes.”

Some workers claimed that a makeshift brothel has been in business in the area for the last five months, moving locations frequently within the Rail Corridor.

From our observation point about 50m across a muddy canal, we could see men looking at four women seated on plastic chairs.

Closer to Sungei Kadut Avenue, a group of men peddle contraband cigarettes which they stash in the bushes.

Source: www.tnp.sg

May 18, 2015