Negotiating LGBTQ rights in Singapore: The margin as a place of refusal

Abstract

The complex diversity of urban life in cities is often the cause of social friction but it can also spark change. Densely populated cities are places where individuals find community but they are also places where some communities become marginalised and excluded. In the city-state of Singapore community-based activism is an important strategy for minority groups claiming a right to their place in the city. Conceptualising the margin as a place of refusal, the paper focuses on how Singapore’s LGBTQ communities have contested and negotiated from their place at the margins of the city-state, calling into question the Singapore State’s hegemonic narratives of family and community for heteronormative nation-building. These contestations have resulted in strategies that both adopt and elide individual rights-based narratives that have centred primarily on the repeal of Section 377A of Singapore’s penal code. While the repeal of 377A remains critical, the paper focuses on three examples of Sayoni’s community advocacy, Pink Dot and education, which extend the discourse beyond the issue of repeal, and the single identity category of sexuality. Even as the fight for repeal continues, LGBTQ subjects are resisting, negotiating and advocating against violence, discrimination and making space for love and community in ways that co-opt and destabilise social norms in Singapore, thus occupying the margin as a place of radical openness.

People, protest and place: Advancing research on the emplacement of LGBTQ+ urban activisms

“…Comparisons draw attention to the spatial pluralism of cultural archipelagos, but they also open up possibilities for examining the mobilisation potential of peripheral places. This is reminiscent of Ramdas's (2021) arguments about organising from the margins; Catungal et al's (2021) sensitivity to multiple geographical centres of care networks; and Rosenberg's (2021) deep dive into the creases and folds of LGBTQ+ urban activisms.…”

“…But how exactly does frame emplacement occur? Ramdas (2021) finds that LGBTQ+ women in Sayoni were not successful when they demanded rights as members of a queer minority; they had to reframe their concerns as related to 'safety and security' or 'care and protection'. These conceptions, while more limited, better fit with how the State viewed its responsibilities towards its citizens ('care and protection') and its patriarchal definitions of womanhood ('safety and security').…”

Experiences of conflict, non-acceptance and discrimination are associated with poor mental well-being amongst LGBTQ-identified individuals in Singapore

“…, 2013; Goh, 2008; Lim et al. , 2018; Lim and Ang, 2021; Maulod, 2021; Oswin, 2010; Radics, 2015; Ramdas, 2020; Tan, 2015; Tan, 2011; Tan and Lee, 2007; Teh et al. , 2015; Yue, 2007), there is surprisingly little published research on issues related to LGBTQ health, particularly mental health.…”

“…Taken together, published and unpublished research shows that LGBTQ minority individuals in Singapore encounter stressors related to their SOGI that their non-LGBTQ peers do not (IndigNation et al, 2020;Oogachaga Counselling and Support, 2012;Pink Dot SG and Oogachaga, 2020;Sayoni, 2011Sayoni, , 2018Tan, 2019;Tan et al, 2020;TransgenderSG et al, 2020a;TransgenderSG et al, 2020b). Although there is a growing body of published research addressing LGBTQ issues in Singapore from sociocultural, behavioural, legal, political, economic, human resource management, social work and media studies perspectives, for example (bin Ibrahim and Barlas, 2021;Chua, 2014;Detenber et al, 2014;Detenber et al, 2013;Goh, 2008;Lim et al, 2018;Lim and Ang, 2021;Maulod, 2021;Oswin, 2010;Radics, 2015;Ramdas, 2020;Tan, 2015;Tan, 2011;Tan and Lee, 2007;Teh et al, 2015;Yue, 2007), there is surprisingly little published research on issues related to LGBTQ health, particularly mental health. Consequently, the impact of SOGI-related stressors on mental, physical or other dimensions of health in the local LGBTQ population is not well characterised, at least within the published literature.…”

Placing LGBTQ+ urban activisms

“…In 'Negotiating LGBTQ rights in Singapore', Ramdas (2021) embodies the scholar-activist educator, working to reconfigure the city-state's sexual margins and centres. While the state rationalises the upholding of a law that criminalises sex between adult men, LGBTQ activists 'do' transformation by occupying margins as places of refusal and radical openness.…”