For my final interview, I talked to Mr. Sean Lacey, who is an educator at UWCSEA East and leads the Equality, PinkDot and PAUSE (Parents At UWC Supporting Each other). It was an amazing perspective to have, being someone who has lived in Singapore since 1998 and has lived through the various reforms that the country has faced in the first 1/5 of the 21st century.

This interview was especially interesting to be a part of because Mr. Lacey is someone who is not from Singapore, and is an expat here. Coming from a country like Canada, which is known to be one of the most progressive countries in the world in terms of LGBTQ+ rights and social reform, I was surprised to hear of the conservative religious background in which he grew up.

Being an educator himself, I thought it would be of paramount importance to ask him about ways in which he thinks society and the academic community can be educated about the LGBTQ+ here in Singapore, to perhaps create more of a sense of acceptance and understanding.

A common trend I noticed, as I came to the conclusion of my engagement experiences with this interview, is that all of the interviewees hope and believe that the change will come from the younger generations. It seems that the wave of globalisation has already taken place in the sense that values of acceptance and cohesion of society among younger generations seems to be present, although they are not yet in the position to make the change that they wish to see.

My third meeting was with Ms. June Chua, who founded and runs The T-Project, which is a welfare shelter and social service provider for the homeless transgender community.

Surprisingly, the conversation that I had with Ms. Chua made me realise that the government’s attitude towards the LGBTQ+ community is present. She told me about the many ways in which the government has supported the opening of her facilities, and how institutions such as IMH have been referring clients to her shelter since 2016. It shows that the government has proactively provided support through regular visits to her shelter; it was hard to get her company registered, but the Minister for Law, Minister K Shanmugam, visited her shelter and helped her get the company officially registered. Additionally, during the COVID pandemic, she has been able to receive funding grants from the government.

Her main aim is to build bridges between the transgender community, the Singaporean community, and the government; she considers herself to be very pragmatic in the sense that she realises policy change will take too long and is much too confrontational for the kind of work that she wants to be doing which is simply providing a safe space and welfare for the homeless transgender community here in Singapore.

I think the biggest take away from this conversation was that Ms. Chua, like the other organisation representatives I have talked to, hopes and believes that the change will come from the younger generations. She hopes that education and representation will be some of the changes that come with this younger representation in government.

My second engagement was with Ms. Zuby Eusofe of The Healing Circle, an organisation that acts as a safe space for queer members of the Muslim community who require assistance in their journey of self-exploration and reconciliation with their spirituality.

She comes from an Islamic background and her mother was a former Quran religious teacher. The biggest thing that I took away from my discussion with Ms. Eusofe, who has extensive knowledge on the teachings of the Quran and the preachings of Islam, is that the true representation of homosexuality in religion (especially Islam) has been lost in translation over the years. The legitimacy of these spiritual leaders in their communities has led to the creation of stigma around the LGBTQ+ community in conservative religious circles, and it has spilled out into general society as well. As she put it herself, “religion is there to reinstate a disciplinary about not having non-consensual sex, but it has nothing to do about not liking someone of the same gender.”

I think that the biggest takeaway from this conversation was the idea of representation, be it in the media or by powerful authoritative figures, has really been misconstrued when it comes to the LGBTQ+ community. Clerics have continued to preach anti-LGBTQ rhetoric that, according to Ms. Eusofe, has been manipulated from what the Quran dictates. Not only this, but representation in the media regarding Section 377A-D, where Section 377A happens to be the most reported (criminalising sexual conduct between two men), represents Section 377A-D as being completely about anti-homosexuality, as compared to the penal code really being about sodomy in public, in general; people are quick to assume the negative attitude towards homosexuality as a result of the highlighted importance on the 377A clause by the media.

My first talk was with Elle Llewellyn of the organisation YouYou, which is a welfare organisation committed to helping members of the LGBTQ+ community that have been ostracised or left behind by heteronormative/religious institutions.

The focus of this talk, being my very first engagement, was to help create a foundation for my understanding of the troubles and worries faced by the LGBTQ+ community here in Singapore, and how organisations are working in the national structure as determined by legislation in order to create a safe space for members of the community as well as potentially practice advocacy work.

Elle declared at the very start of our meeting that the purpose of getting involved in the active LGBTQ+ community was to seek out to “increase the inclusiveness of queer people who want to be religious/spiritual”. A common trend I found in our discussion was a conflicting between culture, religion, tradition and one’s desire to be openly part of the LGBTQ+ community. Therefore, I learned that plenty of organisations here in Singapore such as YouYou seek to fight the stigma surrounding the idea that one cannot be religious as well as part of the LGBTQ+ community.

Another thing I learned that was very useful to know was that organisations here in Singapore tend to be much more about providing welfare support rather than performing active advocacy work. Elle believes attitudes will change in the tide of globalisation, with the cross-exchange of values and beliefs in our world.