Hung out with a Mexican and Singaporean lesbian couple, they’re the same age as my parents.
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Hung out with a Mexican and Singaporean lesbian couple, they’re the same age as my parents. The Singaporean person (who I know better), told me about how when she was in secondary school in the 1980s in Singapore, she made a pact with her 2 other lesbian friends to try to move to San Francisco in their early 20s. One became a film maker, another a writer, and she became a sign language interpreter. They all made it, one is dead; she is retired. Still friends with the other one, who lives nearby.
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Adrianna Tanreplied to Adrianna Tan last edited by [email protected]
Growing up queer in Singapore I always wondered where the queer women my parents’ age were?
They all got the hell out. They’re in San Francisco, London or Melbourne. The ones that remained, and there are some, were probably much more closeted.
We spoke about how by the time I was a queer adult it was socially different (more open) in Singapore, but fundamentally the same re social expectations and lack of legal rights today.
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@skinnylatte they need to write a movie script
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@joannaholman haha this is the filmmaker
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Sometimes when I talk to older queer people of that generation, they’re a little sad and wistful they never got to experience being out and queer in Singapore as an adult, the way I did. I’m like sure there’s a lot of stuff happening now, and activists who stayed made it happen, but it still sucks in so many ways and many of those hard won privileges are privileges, not rights. It’s great being rich, Chinese and queer in Singapore.
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Recently I poked my head into a lesbian parenting group in Singapore and literally every person there was an heir to old money.
It’s possible to live well there as a queer person with children. If you’re a literal heir! If not, then you had kids with a man, and then that didn’t work. But for literally everything else to work, you need a lot more money and connections. Also, no legal rights for other parent.
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Also, the cost of ‘winning’ the repeal of 377 (the sodomy law) in Singapore, a milestone for lgbt rights there, was that gay adoption is now impossible (somewhat possible before), and they’ve now shut down any possible legal recourse for winning lgbt rights in the courts.
So, I personally don’t feel that what I previously believed: that I can bring about change if I made some sacrifices, is going to amount to anything. I don’t want to care anymore. Of course I’ll never stop.