Xmas 2004

Snowballed - Singapore's Stonewall?

If you have ever visited, or ever get a chance to, a bar called Stonewall in New York City, you would probably shrug it off as just another watering hole and walk by. Those who know it for its significance will understand that that was the Ground Zero for the gay rights movement in NYC. The story is quite colorful. Drag queens holding police officers hostage. The Samson-ites taking on the Goliaths.

It may seem quite funny now, but then, it was a different world.

And to fight that world was a feat that took bravery only a feather boa could muster. And it was a feat that could have resulted in disaster. Fortunately for the Americans, what resulted was the birth of a beautiful rainbow.

Singapore has often been likened to the US of days gone by; one visiting American lecturer even put it down circa the 1950s-1960s (think Elizabeth Montgomery in Bewitched). The values and morals apparently mirror those of a simpler time in the great U S of A. But as history has shown for the Americans, values and morals change with the times. And it either evolves slowly, or its gets punched in the gut to move along.

The latter usually happens, when the so called conservative majority refuses to recognize that their world is changing or has already changed. It's what would eventually be termed in daytime talk shows, championed by Oprah herself, as denial.

So here it is. Singapore is in denial and she needs Dr. Phil.

You may have heard. The Singapore Police, that basically sees themselves as the upholder of public opinion, recently rejected the application for a licence by gay portal Fridae.com, to organize a year end dance party. For my international friends, in Singapore, you need a licence for everything. EVERYTHING. (read: if you have a dance show, you may have to dance for the authorities first before they allow your show to go on).

The Police claimed that they "do not discriminate against (gays), the Police also recognise that 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."

Some of those living in Singapore pointedly blame the recent events on a recent speech given by Dr Balaji Sadasivan, Senior Minister Of State For Information, Communications And The Arts & Health on the 27th November at the Singapore AIDS Conference. The sentiment was that Dr. Balaji's speech was anti-gay and served only to fire the prejudice of the conservatives.

But in assessing his speech made available on the official ministry website, http://www.moh.gov.sg/corp/about/newsroom/speeches/details.do?id=29294601, one may argue that much of what he has said has been taken out of context by the media.

In his speech, Dr. Balaji said that his ministry had 2 risk groups: "They are gays or MSM, ie Men having Sex with Men, and heterosexual men having casual sex abroad." He also added that "our specialists are worried about an explosion of AIDS cases among gays."

Dr.Balaji could be faulted for two things. His misinformed view that men having sex with men are exclusively gay, since apparently in his world bisexuality does not exist. To this I would say, go watch the movie Alexander, and if he really wants it, I could ask Oprah to send him a tape of her show on married men who love other men.

The second fault is just a misuse of the word explosion. Yes, it is true there have been more cases among the gay community recently. However, the leading advocate for HIV prevention in SIngapore Action for Aids, states that 'heterosexual spread is now the main method of transmission in Singapore. And over 75% of infections around the world are acquired through heterosexual intercourse'.

As Dr Rev Yap Kim How, former Bishop of The Methodist Church in Singapore & Malaysia states: "The gay community has done much, much more than the heterosexual community that I belong to in addressing sexuality and related sexual diseases and their prevention. It is in the heterosexual community that we need more education on such matters."

So while Dr.Balaji concedes, that "promiscuity is a risk factor for both gays and heterosexuals", the media have pounced on certain gay related statements and blew them up to be bigger than a water filled condom.

Andy Ho, a journalist with a local daily, connected Dr.Balaji's statement of 'an alarming Aids epidemic', with his interpretation that "gay men's unsafe sex practices were the biggest cause for concern". Needless to say, the last statement was not featured in Dr.Balaji's transcripts.

The journalist goes on to say:

"Urged on by new, disinhibiting club drugs like Ecstasy (in combination with Viagra), risky behaviour is now, compared to the pre-Haart era, twice as likely for HIV-positive gays and one-and-a-half-times more
likely for HIV-negative gays. In fact, according to the UCSF study mentioned above, a third of gays with HIV feel that Haart has made unprotected sex that much more thinkable for them now."

His conclusion was to question the logic of making anti-virals inexpensive and readily available since they make "HIV-positive gay fit enough to cruise around for casual, anonymous and risky sex, thereby spreading his virus and fuelling the second wave". Gay people are seen, therefore as loaded guns, in spite of the rate of transmission among heterosexuals. But I could share with Mr.Ho, how many straight men I know, married and single, locals and expats, spread themselves thinly and secretly, in search of the golden orgasm, he would realize that anonymous and risky sex is not exclusive to gay people. Casual sex is not driven by sexual preference, its driven by horniness and hormones. And that my dear Mr.Ho, anyone can choose to have, unless Mr.Ho himself does not understand the concept of being horny. Hm.

Mr.Ho's concerns are fueled by perceptions.

In his own words he believes the "gay world ... glorifies muscles, partying, drugs and anonymous sex". Furthermore, he believes that "to change their sexual behaviour will require going beyond publicity
campaigns. Instead, issues that belong more in the therapist's office, like self-esteem and self-hatred, will have to be confronted".

Mr.Ho's perceptions are even more dangerous than most, for if the authorities were to weight them in, people maybe find anti-virals that they actually need survive to be inaccessible by cost. Making his perceptions not only damning, but murderous.

It is interesting that Mr.Ho, like Dr.Balaji and Singaporean conservatives, believes that again the gay community are only made up on men. In Singapore, the concept of GLBT sounds more like a food item (think BLT). His perception that gay people possess issues of self-esteem issues and self-hatred is not only outright strange and prejudicial, it also undermines and devalues the moderate majority who live extremely actualized regular lives (some better than on his journalist salary). In his view, one can argue that Mr.Ho believes that gay people are lesser creatures deserving medical help to get over their problem of 'wrongly' identifying themselves in the sexual orientation bracket.

Certainly, as in any segment of society, there will be those in the gay community with issues. These issues are undoubtedly fueled by the negativity the press projects onto the conservatives. It becomes a question of right to exist, not exclusively on the morality of a different lifestyle.

Case in point: A ex-colleague in the media company I belonged to, revealed at the end of his tenure that he was gay. He chose to keep that a secret while he was still with the company for several reasons: that in spite of the fact diversity was considered the norm for most media companies, he didn't feel that same level of acceptance in this one. He also felt that his career needed to be protected for he viewed his department head to be a homophobe. Whether this is actually true is debatable. I will say that she did label yours truly as 'creative', a term I viewed as her catch phrase for 'gay'. She would add also that 'creative' people are loud and had an impression that one cannot take some things they do seriously (read: non-managerial material).

The bottom line is impressions lead people to react. And impressions are seldom factual.

That media company has more gays, lesbians and bisexuals I don't even care to count. The sad truth is, even in an American MNC that champions creativity, diversity, equality and originality in the United States, the so called labeled 'creative' people are forced to hide their identity out of fear. Fear of reprisals, of having their rice bowls affected, of being treated different.

The closet, or as we say it in Asia, wardrobe is literally a 'big one' in that company.

But even as sexual preference is apparently not an issue in terrestrial media, as many of the top executives are openly part of the family, the fears are real and affect many segments of Singapore society.

So the story has come to this.

The man acting as the husband in the Bewitched series was himself gay. Making he and Elizabeth Montgomery total professionals for all that kissing they had to do at the end of each episode. Oh, so they had gay people in the white bread, white picket fences era in America too!

Singapore is no longer stuck in a time warp of pre-Disco America.

The media plays an important role in forging opinions.

Singapore is, regardless of denials, a very, very gay country.

So, where do we go from here?

The rejection of the licence just serves to fuel to the slowly burning flame. An American friend told me that Stonewall happened because the gay community was tired of unfair treatment, of continually living in an air of being tolerated but not accepted, their right of existence being controlled for the shrinking conservatives.

Perhaps Snowball may fire up the younger GLBT community out of their Singaporean apathy and do something to claim their right to the world, and to eradicate impressions that a person like Mr. Andy Ho possess.

Or perhaps this international controversy may dwindle to an ember. But an ember still has heat. And it is foreseeable that it is a matter of time before Singapore breaks its own pattern of denial and recognize that the gay community is here, and is here to stay.

Watch this small space in the world. This writer will commit to this: Singapore will play an important part in GLBT rights in Asia, and the economics of recognizing the GLBT community will soon be too hard to ignore, whether she likes it or not.

Peace.

The Snowball Controversy:

http://www.fridae.com/newsfeatures/article.php?articleid=1359&viewarticle=1&searchtype=all

The International Response:

http://www.fridae.com/newsfeatures/article.php?articleid=1360&viewarticle=1&searchtype=all

The HIV Statistics:

http://www.afa.org.sg/astats.htm

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