Tag: Gay

Gay American Lecturer Jailed For Lying About HIV Status, Qualifications

He pretended to be a professor of child psychology and lied to the authorities about his HIV status to get jobs at local polytechnics.

He even used his lover’s blood for an HIV test so that it would test negative for the condition.

Over about eight years, American citizen Mikhy K. Farrera-Brochez, 32, committed offences including cheating, lying to a public servant, possessing drugs and using forged educational certificates.

Yesterday, he was sentenced to 28 months’ jail. He pleaded guilty to six charges, with 17 taken into consideration. Three other charges, which had been taken into consideration, were later stood down to be mentioned at a later date.

In 2008, Farrera-Brochez moved to Singapore, a year after he began a romantic relationship with a local doctor, general practitioner Ler Teck Siang, 35.

To apply for an Employment Pass (EP) to stay in the country with his lover, he submitted an HIV negative blood test result to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) in March that year.

However, Farrera-Brochez, who is HIV positive, had used Dr Ler’s blood for the test by visiting a clinic in Commonwealth where Ler was on duty.

Ler had drawn the blood from his arm that day and labelled the test tube holding his blood with Farrera-Brochez’s particulars.

MOM then issued Farrera-Brochez with an EP, and he later worked as polytechnic lecturer teaching psychology and early childhood education.

He similarly duped the authorities in 2013 when he tried to apply for a Personalised Employment Pass (PEP), which would let him change employers without applying for a new EP.

He was also found guilty of possession and consumption of ketamine and amphetamine in May last year. Investigations further revealed his educational certificates, including a doctorate degree in psychology and education from the University of Paris, were forged.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Suhas Malhotra said he had conspired with Ler to falsify the test results.

“His conduct evinces a blatant disregard for the authority of our laws,” he said

Ler, who is also facing charges, has not been dealt with.

Source: www.tnp.sg

March 2, 2017
Gay Community Expressed Mixed Feelings About Prominent Activist Charged For Drug Crime

A prominent gay activist, Dr Stuart Koe, was hauled to court yesterday for six drug-related charges (including one of trafficking) and the gay community have expressed disappointment that the incident will cause the public to have poor view of it.

Dr Koe was one of the 3 petitioners who appealed to parliament to repeal Section 377A in 2007. He is also the managing director of a local pharmaceutical company, ICM Pharma and the founder of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) news and social networking site Fridae.com.

The 44-year-old allegedly sold a packet of crystalline substance which contained 0.17g of methamphetamine, to another man for $240, at a Spottiswoode Park Road apartment on 25 Aug last year.

Reverend Miak Siew, the pastor of the gay-friendly Free Community Church, said that the community should not kid itself about the harms of drugs. “I know far too many lives destroyed by meth (ice),” he said.

And added: “Addiction is a disease that takes over a person and it is dangerous and irresponsible to say “a little bit” is ok.”

Nic Lim the founder of the Facebook page ‘GLBT Voices Singapore’ said that he had been repeatedly attacked in the past by people in the gay community for posting honest entries about drug use in his page dedicated to gay confessions. They accused him of painting a bad image of the community and of disgracing them.

“So long a huge swath of our community prefers to pretend that we don’t have a drug problem (and we definitely do), then we will lose more and more of our gay brothers and sisters to it, and see more of them in the news,” he said.

Otto Fong, a former Raffles Institution teacher whose coming out in 2007 caused a stir, said:

“But let’s be rational here and look at the real problem. It isn’t Koe who blocked all positive portrayals of gay people in the media. This is a concerted effort by others to erase all the good stuff gay people have been doing – like charity for orphans, creating families in spite of the odds, researches, shaping policies, being great healers and teachers. Just erase our contributions, and make sure the public only reads only the bad things. How can individuals like Koe fight against a tide of people coached weekly to complain, to repeat lies and to hate us with irrational fervor?

I can only hope the younger generation of gay people and straight allies find a better solution. Instead of aiming our hopes and frustrations at Koe, we can do far better to reflect on ourselves and what we can and need to do.”

Another prominent gay activist, Kelvin Wong, said that the conversation on drug use needs more clarity.

“I think we need more clarity when talking about drug use. There is drug use for medical purposes, drug use for recreational purpose, drug abuse and drug addiction. There are growing cases that not all drugs have the same level of harm and addiction level. It is those whose addiction level is high and/or harmful that we need rigourous awareness. There are drugs that have shown to help medical conditions. So we cannot lump drug use or people’s attitudes to drugs the same boat. Furthermore, the law on drugs is historically politically driven and has little relevance to science and facts as the law treats all drugs the same. We could well say the same about alcohol, but because is not against the law and socially accepted people are getting drunk nightly in pubs and dead pissed or dying of liver related failures but nobody cares as much.”

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Source: www.theindependent.sg

February 24, 2017
Man Went Toilet To Ease Himself, Became Uneasy After Catching 2 Men In A Toilet Cubicle

Stomper T caught two men performing a lewd act on each other in a cubicle when he visited one of the toilets in Esplanade Mall yesterday (Feb 17).

According to T, it was around 10pm and the place was deserted.

He told Stomp in a phone interview that he first saw shadows and thought someone was in the toilet cubicle. When he saw two pairs of shoes, he assumed that it was a couple.

T then took a video and only realised that it was in fact two men when he played the clip afterwards.

Said the Stomper:

“I was having a stomachache and rushed to the nearby toilet. While trying to shit, I realised something was wrong somewhere and decided to investigate what was actually happening.

“The sounds of ‘holoq holoq’ were very close and easily heard coming from the cubicle next to me. I didn’t even managed to get my shit out in the slightest bit due to these strange sounds.

“I went out and took a video of the incident. I saw two people lurking inside the cubicle and playing with themselves. I believe they were masturbating each other.

“One of them was shocked to see me and suddenly ducked down to find cover.”

Source: www.stomp.com.sg

February 20, 2017
Alfian Sa’at: Donald Trump Wants To Keep America Safe, But Who Would Protect The World From Them?

I remember making a joke when I was visiting New York last October: “It’s my last chance to visit the US before Trump becomes president and decides to ban Muslims.”

That offhand joke is now a real nightmare, and laughter has turned to bile in the throat.

I don’t intend to set foot on American soil again. The problem is that it’s easy to overlook the kinds of darkness that reside there because for a long time at least in a bipolar world, the US, compared to the Soviet Union, looked like the lesser of two evils. In addition there’s also something about soft power that throws a veil of gauze over sharp edges, that puts the horror into soft focus. America is in our earphones, in our cinemas, on our computer screens and smartphones, and all these help to domesticate its otherness. But alas that soft power is just a pretty collar on a dangerous animal and is not a leash.

There is an America, ostensibly, of Disney and jazz and Instagram. But there is also that other America of unending gun violence, mass incarcerations, a militarised police, a broken healthcare system, white nationalism, a history of Native American genocide and African slavery; an America that exports weapons, that installs puppets and brutal dictators, that undermines popular sovereignty and stages coups, that lies to the world about Weapons of Mass Destruction and steals oil and turns entire neighbourhoods into rubble. How much hatred there must be towards this factory whose main manufacturing products are widows and orphans. And how convenient that those who are anti-American are seen as people who are ‘radicalised’ instead of people who refuse to accept the narrative churned out by the American propaganda machine.

Trump has unmasked this other face of America, or at least made it more public than it ever was before. As a man voted in for being able ‘to say it like it is’, there is no better man for the job.

On the other hand there is an Iran, of unsmiling black robed mullahs and Hezbollah and Ahmadinejad. But there is also another Iran, of rose gardens and fountains and nightingales, of the poets Hafez and Ferdowsi, of some of the greatest films ever made by the likes of Abbas Kiarostami, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Jafar Panahi and Asghar Farhadi. I remember once wanting to visit Iran but wondering whether it would in any way jeopardise any future entry into the US. What foolishness that was. It is both a gift and a curse to be reading and writing in this language. One has access to so much knowledge, but at the same time how susceptible one becomes to American imperialism, one of whose effects is to think of America’s enemies as our own. America fears what it cannot bend to its will. By sharing this fear we are also bending to America’s will.

America wants to be safe. But who will keep the world safe from America?

Source: Alfian Sa’at

January 31, 2017
Singapore Voted Against UN’s Sexual Orientation And Gender Identity (SOGI) Mandate Safeguard

Eight Latin American Countries (LAC 8) countered an African Group’s hostile resolution on the United Nations Human Rights Council Annual Report (specifically targeted at the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Independent (SOGI) Expert Mandate) and submitted an amendment in supporting and preserving the mandate.

84 countries voted in favour of the LAC 8 amendment leading to the failure of the hostile resolution and dissipation of the immediate threat against the establishment of the SOGI Independent Expert. 77 countries voted against the amendment and Singapore is one of them.

The following is a press release on the topic by Outright Action International.

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21 November 2016 (New York) — The United Nations mandate of the Independent Expert on sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) has been safeguarded despite hostile contestation at the 71st Session of the 3rd Committee of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York City.

LGBTIQ activists and organizations around the world quickly mobilized to voice their concerns on the implications of the hostile resolution to national governments as well as at the United Nations headquarters in New York. A joint statement endorsed by 850 organizations from 157 countries around the world, highlighted the need for states to respect the authority of the Human Rights Council and to vote in favour of upholding the SOGI Independent Expert mandate.

‘A lot can be accomplished when forces join hands. We are encouraged by this voting result and in the confirmation that States believe in the mechanisms of the Human Rights Council. It is vital that the integrity of the Human Rights Council remains intact and is not further undermined in the Third Committee,’ stated Jessica Stern, Executive Director, OutRight Action International, the only US based LGBTIQ organization with consultative status at the United Nations.’

The SOGI Independent Expert position on the ‘Protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation, and gender identity (SOGI),’ was mandated by the passing of a historic resolution A/HRC/RES/32/2 on June 30 of this year, and is held by Vitit Muntarbhorn, a human rights expert from Thailand. A campaign of 628 nongovernmental organizations from 151 countries advocated for the adoption of the resolution and for the establishment of the position.

In early November, Botswana, on behalf of the African Group, presented a hostile resolution on the Human Rights Council Annual Report, specifically targeting the SOGI Independent Expert Mandate. The resolution contested the legality of the creation of the mandate, essentially arguing that SOGI are not universally recognized as human rights and are not codified in international law. The resolution called for an indefinite postponement of the mandate until consensus could be reached on the definition of SOGI and the legal basis to which the mandate was created, the African Group statement read,

‘We are alarmed that the Council is delving into matters which fall essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of States counter to the commitment in the United Nations Charter to respect the sovereignty of States and the principle of non-intervention. More importantly, it arises owing to the ominous usage of the two notions: sexual orientation and gender identity. We wish to state that those two notions are not and should not be linked to existing international human rights instruments.’

In response to the African Group resolution, submitted by Botswana, Monica Tabengwa, Botswana human rights activist and director of Pan Africa ILGA commented,

‘We are deeply disappointed that Botswana led this fallacious move by the Africa Group to remove gains at the HRC to include SOGI protections within the existing human rights framework. Let us remind everyone that the SOGI mandate is about real people and their right to secure lives, to be free of violence and discrimination and that these lives can’t be postponed or deferred indefinitely. We deserve more from our governments.’

The SOGI Independent Expert was created after adoption of a resolution in the Human Rights Council in June 2016, initiated by seven Latin American countries, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico and Uruguay. They, plus El Salvador (LAC 8), countered the African Group’s attempt to postpone the mandate by introducing an amendment to the resolution deleting the hostile paragraph.

An explanatory note provided by the eight Latin American countries on their submitted amendment in support of preserving the SOGI mandate and the integrity of the HRC reads,

‘The seriousness of the consequences (…) lies in the fact that never before has a country or group of countries attempted to challenge a special procedures mandate by the Human Rights Council with an appointed and fully functioning mandate holder. (…) If the General Assembly reopens the Council’s annual report and use a selective approach to which resolution it seeks to block or defer indefinitely it would fundamentally undermine the authority granted to the Council by the General Assembly, thus having far reaching implications well beyond the specific resolution under consideration.’

While all 193 countries in the UN General Assembly had the right to vote, only 178 exercised their vote, resulting in the passing of the LAC 8 amendment, leading to the failure of the hostile resolution and dissipation of the immediate threat against the establishment of the SOGI Independent Expert. In total, 84 countries voted in favor of the LAC 8 amendment, 77 voted against the amendment, and 17 countries abstained from voting.

LGBTIQ civil society in the Asia and the Pacific region have vocalized their support for the SOGI Independent Expert, hoping that a representative from the region would help progress protections for people of diverse sexual orientation and gender identity. In response to the voting, Ryan Silverio, Regional Coordinator for the ASEAN SOGIE Caucus said,

‘Today we are reminded of the fundamental mission of the Council, and the UN’s commitment to promote human rights and equality for all. We are encouraged by the open dialogue with ASEAN member states in the lead up of the vote, and are particularly thankful to Thailand for showing leadership to protecting this mandate,’

The failure of the proposed hostile resolution is significant not only because it reinstates the authority of the Human Rights Council, but it also allows forward movement on the work of the SOGI Independent Expert- a crucial stride in the UN’s commitment towards protecting the universality of human rights, especially for vulnerable communities. It reinforces the notion that people cannot be left behind and states must protect all people from discrimination and violence without exception.

‘The SOGI Independent Expert position is vital in bringing to light the horrific acts of violence and discrimination many people face because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. These abuses happen everywhere; no region or country is immune to them. Having concrete documentation showing the consequences of homophobia and transphobia on the lives of people and recommendations on how to address these challenges from an HRC Special Procedure mandate holder will help states take responsibility to protect LGBTIQ persons. It will be much harder to ignore the facts,’ commented Micah Grzywnowicz, trans activist and international advocacy advisor at RFSL, the Swedish Federation for LGBTIQ Rights.’

While the hostile resolution did not pass today, civil society has warned that future attempts to stop the progress of the SOGI Independent Expert are not out of the question.

The Expert will be tasked with assessing implementation of existing international human rights law, identifying best practices and gaps, raising awareness of violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, engaging in dialogue and consultation with States and other stakeholders, and facilitating provision of advisory services, technical assistance, capacity-building and cooperation to help address violence and discrimination on these grounds.

‘As always, the fight continues to ensure that States don’t cherry pick which human rights to protect. We must continue to be vigilant and to mobilize to ensure that universality and non-discrimination triumphs at all levels. We must also ensure that we are working together to create change which will benefit all LGBTIQ people. Safeguarding human rights principles remains prime to peace and security for all people everywhere, anytime,’ said Steve Letsike, Director of Access Chapter 2, a South African LGBTIQ human rights organization.’

Source: http://theindependent.sg

November 23, 2016