Tag: LGBT

End The Slur On LGBT People And Their Allies

The annual Pink Dot event has put Singapore on the map for the right reasons (“LGBT rally forms sea of pink at Hong Lim Park”; June 13, online).

It has become a beacon of hope for many who feel alone and victimised because of who they are, so much so that it has been replicated in places such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and the United States.

Of late, unfortunately, the lead-up to Pink Dot, an event emphasising tolerance, respect and love, has been marred by vitriol directed at the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community and their allies.

Hatemongers have created platforms on social media from which they hurl their slurs. Offline, some have used the pulpit to launch attacks against LGBT people and their supporters.

Many, including those who had been neutral in the issue, have felt compelled to speak out against this bigotry. But the silence of the authorities, who have intervened in racial, religious or gender discrimination, is puzzling.

Replacing the word “LGBT” in this hateful commentary with an ethnic group or religious affiliation would render the remarks seditious.

Replacing “gay” or “lesbian” with a reference to a gender, age group, social class or the disabled would not sit well with civic-minded Singaporeans.

The authorities and our politicians must not practise double standards, but be bold to speak up against such speech. Silence emboldens bigots and would mean complicity in the hate campaign.

This is not about supporting LGBT people but about supporting a society where everyone is treated with dignity and about creating a safe society, where discourse is civil.

Will our leaders respond to protect the secular space in Singapore and signal that such actions are unacceptable?

This article, written by Angeline Wong Hu Wei, first appeared on Voices, Today, on 22 Jun 2015

Source: www.todayonline.com

June 23, 2015
What Next After Pink Dot?

A Pink Dot flag-bearer observes the National Anthem at the annual event at Hong Lim Park on 13 June 2015 (Photo: Regina Goh)

As the dust of annual lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) awareness event Pink Dot settles from an estimated 28,000-strong turnout on Saturday, 13 June 2015, the LGBT community is taking concrete steps forward to engage more people from the varied facets of Singapore’s societal and political landscape.

Pink Dot appointed, this year, its first ever Malay ambassadors in its seven-year run – YouTube personalities Maimunah Bagharib and Hirzi Zulkiflie.

Pink Dot ambassador Hirzi Zulkifli in tears as he reads out his speech before the crowd at the recent Pink Dot event (Photo: Regina Goh)

In a show of emotion, Hirzi broke down into tears at multiple points in his speech before the Pink Dot crowd.

He said that the reason he and Maimunah decided to be ambassadors for the event this year was in response to his fans “showing signs of helplessness” after a recent meet-and-greet revealed their fears as LGBT youth.

“We cannot continue to pretend that LGBT individuals do not exist within our community just because we shut them out from our conversations,” said Hirzi, in response to youth telling him that they were depressed from a lack of avenues to address their concerns.

Hirzi gave the example of a young hijab-wearing girl who was worried about coming out as a lesbian – he hopes that his appointment as Pink Dot’s ambassador will set about a course of change in acceptance by the Malay/Muslim community.

“I really do hope that while we are the first brown ambassadors, that we are not the last either. We all have different ideas of what is right and what is wrong but we should all have the same senses for what is human,” said Hirzi.

Pink Dot efforts more than one-time event: organisers

Pink Dot spokesperson Paerin Choa (centre) with the event’s ambassadors for 2015 (Photo: Regina Goh)

Pink Dot spokesperson Paerin Choa noted that there had been advances in the treatment of the LGBT community, there have been several setbacks in the last year.

In a press conference, Choa said that a 35-second advertisement for this year’s Pink Dot that was planned to be run in cinemas was banned from theatres by the Media Development Authority (MDA).

The MDA had said that “it is not in the public interest to allow cinema halls to carry advertising on LGBT issues, whether they are advocating for the cause, or against the cause”, Choa shared.

However, Choa says steps are being taken to further societal inclusivity for LGBT people in Singapore. Although he declined to reveal specifics, he cited examples where certain Singapore government agencies had approached Pink Dot for opinions regarding LGBT issues.

Choa also noted the increasing corporate support surrounding the event. A record nine corporate sponsors came on board this year, including media heavyweights Twitter and Bloomberg. Local movie giant Cathay Organisation also became a sponsor.

Add the newly-created Pink Street – a selection of retail outlets along North Canal Road, which lines one side of Hong Lim Park, that support the event – to this.

Movement forward: inter-varsity support group launched

Five LGBT groups from four varsities in Singapore have come together to launch an inter-university LGBT network in Singapore (Photo: Inter-University LGBT Network, Singapore/Facebook)

Further to this, groups in the ‘Inter-University LGBT Network’ (Inter-Uni), which consists of five LGBT groups from the National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore Management University (SMU) and the Yale-NUS College, plan to meet regularly and share resources.

Among the initiatives Inter-Uni has launched is an orientation week, with each university hosting its own LGBT orientation programme for students, staff and alumni. This would culminate in an inter-university mixer organised by all five LGBT groups where participants would get to know prospective and current students, staff and alumni from the other varsities.

There are plans for some groups to collaborate and offer regular workshops such as Gender & Sexuality 101 and Allyship 101, as well as a forum on creating more inclusive school communities. The forum is slated to take place in the next semester.

Source: https://sg.news.yahoo.com

June 23, 2015
Masyarakat Melayu-Islam Patut Boycott Cathay Cinemas

Admin,

Saya ada baca tentang sokongan yang diberi syarikat-syarikat tempatan dan MNCs untuk menjayakan acara Pink Dot. Sekarang kita baru tahu yang pawagam Cathay pun teleh berniat untuk menyiarkan iklan Pink Dot di pawagam-pawagamnya . Usaha itu buntu sebab MDA tak luluskan ikklan tersebut.

Ada pihak yang meneyeru agar Cathay diboycott. Saya sokong 100% seruan ini.

Saya bapa kepada seorang anak lelaki berusia lima tahun. Saya dan isteri dulu juga sering ke Cathay untuk menonton wayang ketika tengah dating dulu. Sekarang kita juga ke Cathay sekeluarga untuk menonton cartoon…hiburan untuk anak.

Jadi saya sekeluarga kecewa apabila diberitahu yang makanan dan minuman yang dijual Cathay tidak lagi Halal. Saya rasa terkilan. Memanglah kita boleh melanggani pawagam lain tetapi Cathay yang penuh bermakna bagi saya sekeluarga.

Saya tertanya menagapa Cathay membuat langkah komersil sedemikian? Mungkin jumlah penonton Islam kekurangan. Mungking Cathay tak kisah langsung dan tidak endahkan maklum balas daripada pelanngan Islam mereka.

Tetapi ianya lebih jelasa sekarang.

Cathay lebih rela mempromosikan acara yang bercanggah dengan ajaran Islam daripada menjaga hati pelanggan Muslim. Bila makan minum dah tak halal dan mereka juga menyokong aktiviti haram, apa lagi yang boleh penonton lakukan?

Tak payah kita buat bising. Jawapannya senang je. Kita sama-sama boycott Cathay, walau berat hati nak lakukannya.

Adam

[Reader Contribution]

June 18, 2015
Lee Hsien Loong Is Right – Singapore Is Not Ready For Gay Marriage

Many bloggers took PM Lee to task for one of the article recently.

http://www.straitstimes.com/news/singapore/more-singapore-stories/story/singapore-not-ready-same-sex-marriage-society-still-cons

Apparently one of the journalist asked PM Lee about gay marriage in Singapore and he said that Singapore is not ready for it because we are conservative society. He also noted that “We do not harass them or discriminate against them” and also that most Singaporeans would not want LGBT community to the the tone for Singapore society. He, of course, warned against pushing the agenda too hard in case of strong pushback and that the views are very entrenched and that people get angrier as they discuss it.

Personally, I feel that journalist had asked the wrong question. Of course, PM Lee is right that we are not ready for gay marriage because we are jumping the gun on this. With penal code 377a still looming over the heads of gay men and an unofficial policy of non positive portrayal of “gay lifestyle”, we still have a long way to go before we discuss about gay marriage. So I feel that some folks are being unfair to PM Lee on this because the question was the wrong one to ask.

Now me saying that Singapore is not ready for gay marriage doesn’t mean that if today, the government decides to make marriage equality a real thing, I will not support it. However, with 377a still looming there is a lot of to be concerned with then just marriage.

You know, I love it whenever our leaders says we are not ready for something. They are treating us like some children who couldn’t deal with real issues in a mature manner, in other words, you are not ready to ride a bike, not ready to hike up Mt Kinabalu, not ready to go toilet on your own… you get the idea. Of course, we know this is all political speech because Singaporeans were not ready for casinos (in fact many people opposed it), not ready for over-liberal migrant policies, bubble-gum ban and no alcohol after 10 pm. We are also not ready for a non-Chinese PM, even I though I have not issues if Tharman or Tarmugi were made PM, instead of another useless military Chinese elite MP. My question is whether the Singapore’s “not readiness” is a problem with Singaporean or something deliberately engineered by our ruling party keeping them immature.

It is pretty scary to hear or read that our ruling party and media have adopted the conservative Christian’s political language. Terms like “gay agenda” and “gay lifestyle” is primarily used by Christian right groups to promote and keep discrimination, hatred and divide society and used to in political engagement particular in the West. The successs of infiltration of such language tell us that either the conservative Christians are strongly in control of our government or by proxy (aka rich and powerful persons) or our government don’t put too much thought into such decisions which impacts thousands of families and people. In the Christian political arena, “gay agenda” and “gay lifestyle” has a negative conoctation and this is meant to be so. “Gay agenda” is meant to be insidious and militant which is why we often hear the govt warning of not “pushing the agenda” too much. “Gay lifestyle” is meant to be hedonistic and irresponsible which is why there is a general displeasure at “promoting gay lifestyle”. And the problem even extends to people who supports gay equality, using “gay lifestyle” to support gay equality. A gay agenda do exists (but I saw discuss this some other times) but not what the govt and anti-gayers make it out to be. The gay lifestyle doesn’t exists, just as a non-gay lifestyle, a bi lifestyle or a trans lifestyle doesn’t exists.

Lastly, what makes me more pissed is the govt blaming the victims for upsetting the abusers. Reading what some #wearwhite people got to say about gay folks and the death threats and hatred meted out in groups like WeAreAgainstPinkDot, it is no wonder some people are angry. I said it before, we are trying to mend a divided society, those against equality are the ones that the govt need to deal with, because they want to keep society divided and keep families divided. The way the govt handles this is like a domestic violence where the drunk husband keeps beating the wife and the lawyers tells the wife not to talk about divorce or file police report because it will cause the husband to be angrier… this is exactly what PM Lee meant in this reply.

Yes, Singapore is not ready of gay marriage because basic equality is not even in place and we need to elect a government with more balls to protect it citizens than the current one.

Source: https://saltwetfish.wordpress.com

June 18, 2015
Thousands Of Christians Wear White In Opposition To Pink Dot Sg
Over 6,400 Christians dressed in white on Sunday afternoon to attend a special “family worship” service conducted by Singapore’s Faith Community Baptist Church (FCBC), according to organisers.

The service was held at a full-house Suntec Convention Centre and led by FCBC founder and pastor Lawrence Khong, who earlier called on his followers to wear white over the weekend to protest the annual Pink Dot gay rights rally on Saturday.

Khong, who supports keeping a Singapore law that criminalises sex between men, released a statement on Friday pointing to the Pink Dot movement as a “decline of moral and family values”.

Into its sixth year running, Pink Dot saw an estimated record-breaking crowd of 26,000 gather at Hong Lim Park to discourage gay discrimination.
In a survey on social morality released by the Institute of Policy Studies earlier this year, 78.2 per cent of respondents said sexual relations between two adults of the same sex was wrong, and 72.9 per cent did not agree with gay marriage.

“Pink Dot is right to protest for greater freedom and equality. I respect their push for greater inclusion,” said FCBC member Teo Yee Nam ahead of the Sunday service. “But I feel they have to be mindful of society’s stance on the traditional grounds of marriage.”

Other FCBC members Yahoo Singapore spoke to concurred, saying they were wearing white not to explicitly oppose Pink Dot, but to support their pastor Khong and the idea of a traditional family unit involving one man, one woman and children.

“We’re just coming together to worship God, and wearing white to have the spirit of supporting family,” said Maisy, a 39-year-old homemaker. “Pink Dot have their own position. We don’t have anything against them… after all, we’re all Singaporeans.”

The campaign to wear white was originally started more than a week ago by Singaporean Muslim teacher Ustaz Noor Deros, who asked Muslims to avoid Pink Dot and instead don white garments for Ramadan eve prayers on Saturday night.

Not all Muslims seemed to be aware of the initiative when Yahoo visited the prominent Masjid Sultan at Kampong Glam, but others elsewhere posted photos of themselves wearing white on social media under the hashtag “#wearwhite”.

Source: https://sg.news.yahoo.com
June 18, 2015