Breathe Out, Breathe In
Weekly column written for the Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here.
On Monday, Singapore's High Court dismissed all three legal challenges to Section 377A, the law that criminalizes the LGBTQ community. After ten years of Pink Dot, the annual mass rally for equality, after the increasing show of support from straight allies and local companies, after influential political leaders such as the former ambassador to the US and the brother to the Prime Minister called for change, after a former Chief Justice and two former Attorney-Generals wrote public critiques of the law, the High Court's judgment has not budged a millimeter from the 2014 judgment of the Apex Court. Most infuriating is the High Court argument, which agrees with the government's, that Section 377A "serves the purpose of safeguarding public morality by showing societal moral disapproval of male homosexual acts."
The fight for equality must continue. Already one of the plaintiffs has filed an application to the Appeals Court. Besides legal recourse, however, we need to create further social and political change. What the LGBTQ community has done to advance the cause has been done with courage, imagination, and tenacity; it has brought us a long way. In addition to the visibility afforded by Pink Dot, very promising too is the patient research and advocacy work by Sayoni, who deserves all our support. Although Singapore Unbound is based in the US, we have always been strongly concerned with freedom of expression and equality for all in Singapore. In a spirit of humility and camaraderie, we'd like to commend a two-pronged strategy to effect further social and political change. We need to breathe out the poison of discrimination and breathe in the nourishment of hope.
1. COME OUT TWO (CO2)
If we have the means to do so, we need to come out again, this time not to family and friends, but to government agencies, and tell them that as long as this government criminalizes the LGBTQ community, we will refuse to do any work for them. Right now our creative and corporate labor is taken for granted; in fact, it is often cited against us to show how free Singapore already is. We need to starve them of the oxygen that they now take for granted. Allies can do the same. To enable more of us to do this, we could set up commercial, political, and cultural associations to support those of us who say no to the government. Small but promising is the model provided by the beloved indie film center The Projector, which needs your help right now. Singapore Unbound tries to do the same for creative writers.
2. OXY-GEN-NATE (OXY)
The media is forever branding this generation and that as X, Y, or Z. We could name ourselves, the many generations in our community, as the OXY generation. In our love for diversity, we are the movement that re-oxygenates our hearts after the atrocious High Court judgment and changes our anger, fear, and sadness into sentiments of care for the most vulnerable groups within the LGBTQ community and the wider society. The trans community needs our caring. As do the elderly, queer or otherwise. We can mobilize our people and resources to set up explicitly-queer organizations, or at least queer caucuses or networks in bigger organizations, dedicated to caring. Already we have queer pioneers in the migrant labor groups HOME and TWC2. How about a Rainbow for the Specially Abled? Or Queers for Fairer Elections? By building such organizations of care, we are joining our struggle to the struggle of other Singaporeans for justice and equality, that is, to redeem the promise in our National Pledge; that is, to make Singapore truly a home for all who seek refuge there.
The present public health crisis affords great opportunities both to stand firm and to care for others. It is up to us to have the courage and the imagination to seize these opportunities.
Jee Leong Koh
April 2, 2020
On Monday, Singapore's High Court dismissed all three legal challenges to Section 377A, the law that criminalizes the LGBTQ community. After ten years of Pink Dot, the annual mass rally for equality, after the increasing show of support from straight allies and local companies, after influential political leaders such as the former ambassador to the US and the brother to the Prime Minister called for change, after a former Chief Justice and two former Attorney-Generals wrote public critiques of the law, the High Court's judgment has not budged a millimeter from the 2014 judgment of the Apex Court. Most infuriating is the High Court argument, which agrees with the government's, that Section 377A "serves the purpose of safeguarding public morality by showing societal moral disapproval of male homosexual acts."
The fight for equality must continue. Already one of the plaintiffs has filed an application to the Appeals Court. Besides legal recourse, however, we need to create further social and political change. What the LGBTQ community has done to advance the cause has been done with courage, imagination, and tenacity; it has brought us a long way. In addition to the visibility afforded by Pink Dot, very promising too is the patient research and advocacy work by Sayoni, who deserves all our support. Although Singapore Unbound is based in the US, we have always been strongly concerned with freedom of expression and equality for all in Singapore. In a spirit of humility and camaraderie, we'd like to commend a two-pronged strategy to effect further social and political change. We need to breathe out the poison of discrimination and breathe in the nourishment of hope.
1. COME OUT TWO (CO2)
If we have the means to do so, we need to come out again, this time not to family and friends, but to government agencies, and tell them that as long as this government criminalizes the LGBTQ community, we will refuse to do any work for them. Right now our creative and corporate labor is taken for granted; in fact, it is often cited against us to show how free Singapore already is. We need to starve them of the oxygen that they now take for granted. Allies can do the same. To enable more of us to do this, we could set up commercial, political, and cultural associations to support those of us who say no to the government. Small but promising is the model provided by the beloved indie film center The Projector, which needs your help right now. Singapore Unbound tries to do the same for creative writers.
2. OXY-GEN-NATE (OXY)
The media is forever branding this generation and that as X, Y, or Z. We could name ourselves, the many generations in our community, as the OXY generation. In our love for diversity, we are the movement that re-oxygenates our hearts after the atrocious High Court judgment and changes our anger, fear, and sadness into sentiments of care for the most vulnerable groups within the LGBTQ community and the wider society. The trans community needs our caring. As do the elderly, queer or otherwise. We can mobilize our people and resources to set up explicitly-queer organizations, or at least queer caucuses or networks in bigger organizations, dedicated to caring. Already we have queer pioneers in the migrant labor groups HOME and TWC2. How about a Rainbow for the Specially Abled? Or Queers for Fairer Elections? By building such organizations of care, we are joining our struggle to the struggle of other Singaporeans for justice and equality, that is, to redeem the promise in our National Pledge; that is, to make Singapore truly a home for all who seek refuge there.
"HOME" (2013) written and directed by Boo Junfeng
The present public health crisis affords great opportunities both to stand firm and to care for others. It is up to us to have the courage and the imagination to seize these opportunities.
Jee Leong Koh
April 2, 2020
Comments