on this 42nd national day, i find myself, a singaporean gayman, thinking once again about how i can make singapore more accepting of singaporean gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals (glbts).
i think of how we always try to blame the society for not accepting us, how we always blame the society's non-acceptance of glbts on the government, on 377A, etc etc etc. and on reflecting, it occured to me that we (and our mindsets and mental blocks) have also contributed to this to a certain extend. if we are ever gonna go anywhere in getting singapore to accept us, we must make our moves - we must show the country the extend to which we have already been involved in contributing to our country (in all fields including society, security, military, education, economy, etc) and that we will continue to do so. and we must come out and convince people around us that we are no different from them. we must educate the society that homophobia is unfounded and that they have been flooded with misinformation.
while many point fingers at the government, or for that matter, at 377A, at any policies or even the society at large, i personally think that there's no end to it, we blame the government, government push it to the society, the society elects the government... no end to this cycle. if we are ever going to make a difference and break this cycle, it must start with us convincing them (the government and the society) that we are part of them, there's no point in starting off from a `i-you & we are at the opposite end' position. they will feel threatened, they will fight back (remember x-men? heh heh). no different from how some of us are fighting back cos we too have started off from a `you-i' perspective.
yes, there's value in organising gay-oriented activities, gay support groups, events for gay people to interact etc, my personal feel is that if we make it too high profile, there might even be a backlash and it might turn out counter-productive at this point in time.
we should also focus some of our energies to the society. and make these glbt-organised events that contribute to nation-building high profile. organise visits to old folks home, children's home, support volunteerism, support breast cancer, support keeping the environment green, fly the national flag, stand up for singapore, there are so many to think about... signal to the society that there's no `you' and `i' in the first place, there's only `we'. `we' are singaporeans and we make up the society, regardless of race, language, gender or religion.
also, it is perhaps a responsibility of every glbt individual to play a part in evolving this government-branded conservative society of ours. in coming out to the people around us, we as glbts will break their stereotyped views about us. our individual small efforts will contribute a big big way to getting eventually our society to accept us. for we exist amongst our str8 compatriots. the people around us makes up the society, the government, and everything else in between. think about it, our one small move can become such a powerful force. think about how many parents have become supporters of us after learning that their sons and daughters are glbts, think about the many glbt friends you have whose parents are politicians (ironic ya?), think about the power that we have in changing the society if we were to make the first move to open ourselves out to people around us. mobilise the people power. for the people around us make up the society. that - perhaps is the surest way to get things moving for us as a society, a society where every individual counts, for 377A to be permanently removed (important for some in our glbt community), for mindsets to change - like what dumbledore said - for the greater good ;-)
and this perhaps is the surest way we can break the cycle of government claiming that they cannot change things cos the society is conservative.
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