Pk Dot: Cultural and Sexual Cizenship Gay Sgapore on JSTOR

Contents:

• A YEAR AFTER SGAPORE DECRIMALIZED GAY SEX, ITS LGBT COMMUNY TURNS ATTENTN TO FAY
• SGAPOREANS RALLY FOR GAY PRI AMID BAN ON FOREIGNERS

A YEAR AFTER SGAPORE DECRIMALIZED GAY SEX, ITS LGBT COMMUNY TURNS ATTENTN TO FAY

Stg alone at the park on Saturday, wearg a pk wig and large sunglass, the 50-year-old tells TIME that, here at Pk Dot, he do not have to hi his inty as a gay Mlim man—a secret that he has kept om his fay for s and has no plans of divulgg. Phuong Nham, a Vietname gay man who moved to the Southeast Asian cy-state about 13 years ago, tells TIME that every Pk Dot event he has attend sce 2016 has been filled wh explic lls for the repeal of Sectn 377A, the law which crics say has long formed the basis for a host of discrimatory polici agast the LGBT muny. “Every gay or lbian [uple], they have the same equal right to build their own fay jt as the straight uple.

SINGAPORE: At the first Pk Dot event after Sgapore repealed Sectn 377A - a lonial-era law that crimalised gay sex - the mood was one of celebratn, said participants and the aniser.

Gay sex Sgapore remas illegal even if is nsensual, between adults, and tak place private. Sgapore’s Infom Media Development Authory said that the animated film was appropriate for young viewers due to “overt homosexual pictns”. “We don’t have rpect and equaly, no matter what our pledge and the ernment says – and that’s why ’s important to stage Pk Dot every year, ” said Nizam Razak, a 36-year-old gay man at Pk Dot.

SGAPOREANS RALLY FOR GAY PRI AMID BAN ON FOREIGNERS

“When will thgs really get better for the gay muny? SINGAPORE — Thoands of people turned up at Hong Lim Park on Saturday (June 18) support of lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer (LGBTQ) rally Pk Dot, the first time that the event was held physilly sce 2019.

The Pk Dot rally, held support of the lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer (LGBTQ) muny, was attend by thoands of people on June 18, 2022, after the physil event uld not take place 2020 and 2021 due to the panmic. SINGAPORE — Thoands of people turned up at Hong Lim Park on Saturday (June 18)  support of lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer (LGBTQ) rally Pk Dot, the first time that the event was held physilly sce 2019.

SINGAPORE — The anisers of lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer (LGBTQ) rally Pk Dot have taken issue wh how the Government has ced the event at a recent Uned Natns (UN) meetg as an example of how the LGBTQ muny here do not face the Mistry of Home Affairs (MHA) said rponse to TODAY’s queri that the statement ma durg Sgapore’s third universal perdic review (UPR) wh the UN Human Rights Council was tend to illtrate the fact that the Government “do not tolerate vlence, abe, discrimatn, and harassment” agast any person or muny noted on Friday that the anisers of Pk Dot have held the event at the Speakers’ Corner for several years.

“In the ntext of Sgapore, where attus towards homosexualy are still evolvg and var muni hold different views, any move by the Government mt take to nsiratn the sentiments of all muni. (Photo by Ore Huiyg/Getty Imag)SINGAPORE — The 13th edn of Pk Dot, Sgapore's annual monstratn for gay rights, is happeng on 12 June.

ProductnsAlli of SkPSA SkBlh SponsorsArt PortersW360 GroupPrplayHtle FundBbLtle SarongPREP LuxeCream of the CropShootg Gallery AsiaType ANow Your MdMotti(Plu)ral ArtThe Secret MermaidThe Media Shop Group Pte LtdThe Improv CompanyGAIAContentMRKTIndividual SponsorsKC LyeCaar SenguptaNg Choon SanDrs Etienne & VcentDors TanClayton Bond and Ted OsiMaggi HughAaron YipTan Xu DaLim Yu BengPhillip ChWilli ChgKuttan FayRelated stori:Celebs Sgapore speak out for Pri Month and Pk DotSgaporean transgenr stunt says she's barred om school agaMediarp apologis for TV drama ntag negative gay stereotypHom across Sgapore light up pk as Pk Dot 2020 go onleSgapore's LGBTQ voters ll on electn ndidat to end silence on queer issuLGBTQ muni Asia h hard by panmic rtrictns. Pk Dot was iated 2009 as a gay pri rnival Sgapore.

In Hong Kong, there is no anti-discrimatn legislatn for sexual orientatn, and gay marriage remas illic; Sgapore’s legal system even outlaws sexual terurse between men.

In this rpect, the two world ci’ soc-cultural velopment is laggg behd their wtern liberal mocratic unterparts and more recently their neighbor, Taiwan, which legalized gay marriage May.

For the past 17 years I have lived this cy, rarely do I hear bat on gay rights through official channels. Sendly, popular culture on mastream televisn shows normalis the risn of homosexualy. The factors expla part the ocsnal disgted star directed towards homosexual upl on the street and the untls closeted dividuals ged this mute cy.

Though this is not as monumental as Ameri’s natnwi legalisatn of gay marriage, is a tone for Hong Kong’s long-stagnated social what’s next for this cy of 7 ln? Pk Dot: Cultural and Sexual Cizenship Gay Sgapore on JSTOR. Two women cheer at a Pk Dot rally support of gay rights Sgapore.

In a cy state where sex between men remas illegal, the 10-year-old annual gay pri rally keeps growg, even if advot say the expandg crowds have not yet moved the needle for equal rights Published: 8:48am, 21 Jul, 2018 Updated: 3:23pm, 21 Jul, 2018 Two women cheer at a Pk Dot rally support of gay rights Sgapore. Saturday’s Pk Dot gay pri rally attracted 20, 000 atten, anizers said.

The strg of recent victori for the LGBT movement globally should not overshadow the fact that over 80 jurisdictns the world still crimalize homosexualy. The event provis a safe environment for progrsive Sgaporeans, gay and straight, to gather and champn reform spe the untry’s largely nservative soc-polil climate.

Sectn 377A of the penal , which mak male homosexual activy punishable by up to two years of prison, has been the target of domtic and ternatnal cricism, and s repeal has long been the foremost goal of LGBT activists.

Yet progrs on this issue has April 9, the Sgapore High Court fend Sectn 377A agast a nstutnal challenge lnched by Gary Lim and Kenh Chee, characterizg crimalizatn of homosexual activy as a “social norm” that “has yet to ga currency.

On cidg whether the “social norm” of crimalizg homosexualy “should be retaed or disrd the face of a nstutnal challenge, ” Jtice Loh wr, “ our legal system, that cisn is left to Parliament. “I thk the legislature uld have repealed the law, but they chose not to unr the perceptn that people were not ready to accept homosexualy.

I know people who have lost their jobs bee they’re gay, ” says Jocelyn Teo, while distributg flyers on trans* persons to Pk Dot participants. More than 28, 000 people have signed a petn llg for viewg to be rtricted as would expose children to ‘homosexualy as a liftyle’. Also, Bian Tan was the first person to suggt on SiGNeL that a gatherg of people togged out pk would have more broad-based appeal than a gay pri para[23].

The ratnale was that a mixed crowd of both straight and LGBT participants drsed the same way to support a e would circumvent the problem of outg onelf as would mean that jt bee one was seen at the event, this would not necsarily signify that one was gay. The new date they found had symbolic signifince – 16 May 2009, sandwiched between the Internatnal Day of Fai (15 May 2009), and the Internatnal Day Agast Homophobia (IDAHO, on 17 May 2009). It simply was not fair to portray gay people as beg anti-fay.

Male homosexual sex remaed illegal Sgapore bee of the existence of Sectn 377A of the Penal Co. The AWARE saga galvanised people to attend the first Pk Dot to make a stand agast the unrhand mod operandi and homophobic valu of the disgraced ex-new ex, addn to supportg the "Freedom to Love".

Three gay-iendly cultural performance troup ntributed to the rnival-like atmosphere, reprentg Sgapore’s major ethnic groups and challengg perceptns of such cultural groups beg opposed to participatg a LGBT-related activy. Media verage was garnered lolly om The Stras Tim[50], [51] and TODAY newspaper[52], [53], which me as a pleasant surprise given the prevailg media gag on posive portrayals of homosexualy. The event was important sofar as tangibly monstrated to the lol gay muny the existence of a sizeable heterosexual populatn that was terted and ncerned about LGBT issu; this directly lsened the paranoia that many LGBT dividuals experienced wh regard to their work and home environments.

"On May 16, a rally support of "the eedom of lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr persons Sgapore to love" took place at Speakers Corner. It was also featured the documentary film "Courage Unfolds", produced 2011, which formed a central part of the Courage Unfolds Campaign of the Internatnal Gay and Lbian Human Rights Commissn (IGLHRC)[64]. Sgaporean gay movement Pk Dot has borrowed selectively om the U.