List of LGBT organizations in Singapore
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Contents |
[edit] Historical
[edit] Real world
- Yagga Yagga support group - the third, but most well known, of the initial support groups for gay men ever to be organised in Singapore. It had two sessions, Yagga Yagga 1 and Yagga Yagga 2, separated by several months. The previous groups were named Northern (something) and Forbidden Fruit. All were started by activist Alex Au. The same format would be carried into future support groups such as the current and immensely popular Oogachaga. Yagga Yagga was targeted at men who embraced their sexuality late in life. Operational for 12 months, its last session ended in June 1999. Read Yawning Bread's round-up of the group's experiences:[1]
- SiGNeL gatherings - informal social meetings of the Singapore Gay News List for the then-nascent Internet gay community. The first was organised by list owner Alex Au at a local Chinese restaurant several months after SiGNeL's founding. Its first anniversary was held on 15 March 1998 at Goodwood Park Hotel and organised by activist Kelvin Wong. Gatherings in later years were held at the pub EMOH at Upper Circular Road, organised by Miak Siew and at the Centrepoint food court, organised by Patrick Lee.
- The NUS weekly tea group for womyn
[edit] Cyberspace
[edit] Non-profit
- SinGLe - a short-lived unmoderated rebel newslist which broke off from SiGNeL (the Singapore gay newslist, see below) but suffered a premature demise due to unregulated postings of a large amount of rubbish.
[edit] Commercial
- fluffboy.com - a little-known website forced to close down in 2005 by the Media Development Authority for allegedly promoting homosexual promiscuity.
[edit] Contemporary
[edit] Real world
- People Like Us 3 (PLU3) [2]
The first and still the main gay-equality advocacy group in Singapore, started in 1993 by Joseph Lo and later joined by activists Alex Au and Dr. Russell Heng.
- Action for AIDS (AfA) [3]- a gay-supported and gay-supportive AIDS advocacy and AIDS services charity started by a group of doctors in 1988. It organised successful campaigns to break down the 'only homosexuals get AIDS' stereotypes, to change the 24-hour cremation rule and to create greater AIDS awareness in school sex education. It publishes 'The Act', a free periodical which provides Singaporeans MSMs with safe-sex and AIDS-related information.
- Heartland [4]- the gay Singapore Buddhist discussion group spearheaded by activist Kelvin Wong in 2003.
- Safehaven [5]- a Christian group which has been gathering since 1998 for prayer, Bible study and fellowship. Gay affirmative and made up of different age groups, backgrounds and religious traditions.
- The Free Community Church [6]- a Christian network offering the support of small groups and a Sunday service at Yangtze Building. Inaugurated in 1999.
- Adventurers Like Us (ADLUS) [7] - the Singapore sports and outdoor activities network for gays and lesbians. It was started by Kelvin Wong, who later handed over its management to Ethan Lim. The group has both a website and an active mailing list: [8]. The mailing list is the main communication hub for the network. The website was revamped in September 2006 to become more user-friendly. ADLUS activities encompass many sporting activities and the group is also actively involved in promoting sports and outdoor activities in the GLBT community. The website also list major events in the Singapore sports scene. They were the network that helped send Singapore's first sports team to the Gay Olympics in Sydney, Australia.
- Women's Nite [9]- provides a safe, neutral and alcohol-free space for lesbians and bisexual women in Singapore to gather and discuss the issues relevant to their lives. Talks and workshops are also held. It runs on the last Saturday of every month.
- Spaces centre for counselling and development [10]- a private, non-profit counselling and development agency conceived in 2001 by counsellor and psychologist Clarence Singam. Activities include face-to-face counselling and time-limited support group programs. Counsellees have included persons struggling over sexuality, self-esteem, relationship and career issues.
- Oogachaga support group [11]- started by PLU and later headed by artist Jason Wee and friends Steve Wong and Kenneth Lau in 1999, its torch was handed to counsellor Clarence Singam in the early 2000s and is now carried by Bryan Choong; mainly for young men in their 20s who are making major life decisions about career, friendship, relationship, and family. Oogachaga talks have become highly-anticipated guidance and mutual revelation sessions for the gay community (see Singapore gay conferences). Oogachaga also runs support groups for gay men and lesbians. Oogachaga will also start its Transgender support group in 2007. On 18 Feb 2006, Oogachaga started the OCMSM (Oogachaga Men-who-have-Sex-with-Men) hotline, Singapore's first hotline manned by gay volunteers. This community outreach service enables MSM to talk about issues regarding their sexuality issues or to find out more information on HIV and STI.
- MenAfterWork (MAW) [12]- a group that organises strictly non-sexual social outings for gay men. Formed by Shenzi Chua in the 1990s. It currently appears to be inactive, with some of its activities taken over by Friends Like Us.
- Friends Like Us (F.L.U.S., pronounced "flas") [13]- an LGBT social enterprise which aspires to be the nexus between business, innovation and community work. They are committed to reaching out to diverse members of LGBT society with the primary objective to better lives through entrepreneurial and other community projects. Net proceeds from their ad hoc activities and events including Dragon Boat racing, inline skating, kayaking, movie outings, a dating club, gatherings and trips, are used to fund community service initiatives including their Caresports, Careout and Carefund programmes. Address: Blk 1 #01-13 Yishun St 23 YS-ONE Singapore 768441. Tel: 96315540.
- SAFE Singapore (Supporting, AFfirming and Empowering our LGBTQ friends and family; see website, Fridae article) - a support group founded in December 2006 by a team of 4 heterosexual women to provide information and resources for straight people struggling to accept their queer friends and relatives.
- CACTUS (Community Action for Us) [14] - a non-profit social group for LGBT people in Singapore. It aims to function like a community club, having its members actively volunteering to organise social events and activities. Its goal is to improve the social well-being of its members and the gay community at large.
- Pelangi Pride Centre[15] - a GLBTQ resource centre which provides a library/archives, information resources and a community space for sexual minorities. Located at Bianco (above Mox Bar & Cafe), 21 Tanjong Pagar Road, the Centre operates from 4 to 8pm every Saturday. Events are held regularly every 2nd Saturday of the month. For more information, email contact@pelangipridecentre.org or go to www.pelangipridecentre.org
[edit] Cyberspace
[edit] Non-profit
- The Singapore Gay News List (SiGNeL) [16] - started on 15 March 1997 (the Ides of March, having a cryptic coincidental symbolism with the slaying of Caesar) by activist Alex Au. Its subscribership has grown to over 2000 and it represents the main platform for intellectual discussion of gay issues in Singapore. SiGNeL postings have been archived in Yahoo! groups since 1999.
- RedQuEEn! [17] - initiated by former PLU3 president Eileena Lee in 1998, this e-mail list for queer womyn, provides a safe online discussion space for womyn. RedQuEEn![18] is a moderated online mailing list for bisexual, lesbian and queer women. Having started from an initial group of 17 women, this 7 year old Singaporean list currently numbers over 1000 women. With discussions ranging from the serious to the very humorous, this list provides online support as well as friendship and networking opportunities. Its postings have been archived in Yahoo! groups since 1998.
- Sayoni [19] - a Singapore-based platform for Asian queer women, comprising a blog [20], and a forum [21]. Founded by a group of women from diverse backgrounds, age groups, economic status and ethnicity, it aims to empower queer women via a two-pronged approach to encourage dialogue within the community and to educate the general public. Both its media are open to public view.
- The Looking Glass [22] - a free counselling service run by a group of queer-friendly woman volunteers who provide women with strictly confidential and anonymous counselling through e-mail. In April 2001, the tragic suicides of lesbian lovers Michelle Yong and Wee May May in Singapore prompted 10 volunteers from RedQuEEn! to get together to be trained by professional counsellors. Their goal was to listen, counsel and help those who were pushed to the edge by their daily negativities and problems encountered in urbanized life.
- The online IRC community #AJ [23], founded by channel owner YiJan in 2001. Although it started as a cyberchat service, it has since forged many friendships and formed real-world bonds. Channel #AJ is currently situated on the Galaxynet IRC Network. It can be accessed either with an IRC client or #AJ's downloadable customized mIRC.
- The Hong Lim Park Forum [24] opened its doors on 13 August 2004 and quickly became the premier discussion board for mature gay Singaporeans, with good participation from mature Asian men from around the world. For some time, it was touted as the world's largest English language-based online forum for mature Asian men, although Mandarin and Japanese language exchanges were not uncommon. However, interest waned and it ceased functioning in early 2006. It is now only a skeleton website.
- Gay To The Bone [25] is an online LGB community writing project hosted on the blogging website Blogspot. It is targeted at teenage and young adult Singaporean LGB individuals. It enables them to submit stories about their struggles, coming out experiences and relationships with friends in Singapore. It hopes to assist queer teenagers with their life struggles via offering a space for people to voice their thoughts. It also aims to educate non-queer readers via these real-life tales. It is currently inactive and has been superseded by PLUME.
- PLUME [26], an acronym for People Like You and Me. It is Singapore's first Internet discussion forum catering specifically to LGB teenagers. It was an offshoot of Gay To The Bone and was founded by Zee in 2006. It is also hosted on Blogspot.
- Maleculture [27] - a website set up by entrepreneur Max Lim, closely affiliated with Raw sauna, providing information and support for gay Asian men.
- As-Salam Singapore [28], a newslist dedicated towards helping LGBTQI or queer Muslims living in Singapore reconcile their sexuality with their faith through a safe and peaceful platform, namely, a place of as-salam.
- SAMBAL [29], the Singaporean And Malaysian Bisexual women And Lesbian international e-mail list, caters strictly to women only- those who are lesbians or bisexual- from Malaysia and Singapore. Members come together virtually to discuss Malaysian/Singaporean lesbian and bisexual women's cultural, social and political experiences/issues.
[edit] Commercial
Singapore is unique in Asia in having very established commercial LGBT portals owing to its high Internet penetration rates and the restriction on homosexual topics in print and broadcast media. These portals provide a large measure of support to the gay community, as evidenced by their enormous patron base which dwarfs the throughput of all the above-listed volunteer-maintained sites.
- Trevvy.com (formerly Sgboy.com) [30]- set up in March 1999 by its then 20-year-old founder when he was a national serviceman, Sgboy grew to become one of the most popular LGBT portals in Singapore. Widely known for its chat room and discussion boards which enjoy a high degree of participation and deal with a diverse array of topics, many young gay men "came out" and grew up surfing the pioneer Singapore gay portal. It underwent a major makeover, rebranding itself as Trevvy.com in August 2006, shifting its focus to the more mature 25 to 40-year age group of the local gay market and expanding it user base regionally. Trevvy held its launch parties entitled "Strawberries" and "Cream" at popular clubs Attica and Taboo respectively in December 2006.
- fridae.com [31]- this large English-language LGBT portal has grown by leaps and bounds since its founding in December 2000 by scientist-cum-entrepreneur Dr. Stuart Koe. It organised the iconic "Nation" mega-parties until public gay parties were banned in Singapore in 2004. It underwent a major shift in focus towards LGBT advocacy in late 2006, announcing that it would no longer be organising large regional circuit parties.
