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So the news about a Singapore political party coming out (haha) as anti-LGBTQ is very timely because the ruling party is likely going to field a LGBTQ activist. She will likely win due to the ‘unique’ traits of our political system (you vote for a group of people rather than an individual, most places). But comparing the anti vote to the regular anti vote will give you a good electoral indicator of how strong homophobia really is (I’m guessing not really)
Not really because queer people there are starting from a low base. She was involved in the efforts to repeal the British colonial era anti-sodomy law, and that was the only win we ever had there. Queer people still can’t marry, adopt, have partnerships, have immigration benefits for their benefits, get citizenship for their children, etc. so it’s a very low base. There are no practical things to be against LGBTQ people for, unless you’re a religious Muslim or Christian, which is the entire base of the homophobes there
But it’ll be interesting to see how Singapore’s first queer politician is received. She is very open and known (she’s my age, and of course I know her).
Fundamentally like with lots of things about rights in Singapore, class and race matters more. She is a Chinese Singaporean who is a professional who went to the right schools. Just as I did. And like her, I guess I thought it was totally fine to be queer there until I decided to marry a foreigner and learned what it’s like to live there as a queer person without rights. My privileges aren’t enough.
And that is why I became an immigrant and am living in a burning empire
@skinnylatte thanks for the perspectives on this! It will indeed be interesting ...
@skinnylatte Just want to note, Thailand became the first ASEAN country to legalize same-sex unions. Could Singapore be next?
@Fat_Farang not sure. Singapore has signaled in many ways its extremely homophobic and interested in not pissing off rich conservative Chinese Christians there
Socially it is not terrible to be queer but legally zero