"When diversity policy meets local law"

[theseeker]

Just happened to come across a couple of interesting articles recently..... Curious to what are your opinions on them? :?

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-27584565
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-22088852

From Pink Dot to "pink whale"

Last year's Pink Dot drew 21,000 attendees, and organisers expect even more this year.

The first Pink Dot in 2009 saw 2,500 pink-clad supporters forming the eponymous dot at Hong Lim Park. Over the years, that dot has expanded to cover the entire park, which takes up nearly a hectare in Singapore's city centre. Organisers now jokingly call it a "pink whale".

Pink Dot has moved carefully, eschewing traditional protest activism for a soft-pedal approach. It touts a fuzzy slogan "Supporting the freedom to love" and its main event is a family picnic.

This may have made it easier for the authorities to let Pink Dot carry on, although they have set limits on how far it can grow.

For the second time in a row, the authorities have turned down their application to shift the event to a larger space at Marina Bay, calling the proposed venue not "suitable".

Organisers were "disappointed", but understood that officials had "a duty to balance and manage the sensitivities of different segments of society", Pink Dot spokesman Paerin Choa said.

The government has been trying to walk a tightrope on the issue of gay rights in recent years, as signs of a conservative pushback have emerged from religious groups.

In May, a group affiliated to a megachurch applied to hold an event at the historic Padang site. The event was touted as "defending the family" against several things including "media that promotes sexual immorality including the homosexual agenda". The government turned them down.

 

[dargelos]

This question is at risk of getting buried if it gets no answers so let me bump it.
What I get from the BBC article is that an army fighting a war has to make alliances anywhere it can. If the Singapore gay rights movement can get help from transnational corporations then it has to use that help. That dosen't mean we should lick their arses in gratitude, there is only one reason why they ever do anything. Can anyone guess what that is? If Google, Barclays, J P Morgan, Goldman Sachs and BP didn't calculate that supporting gay rights was good for their profits, they would not waste valuable time doing something for mere wishy washy moral reasons.
Since Singapore society has respect for people who have the trappings of success, the men in suits will get a better hearing than the men in jeans, though the men in jeans are speaking from the heart instead of from the wallet.
Certainly don't try to copy the Stonewall riot, that did a brilliant job in another place in another time, your police are too adept at breaking skulls for violent protest to work in Singapore

 

[theseeker]

Certainly don't try to copy the Stonewall riot, that did a brilliant job in another place in another time, your police are too adept at breaking skulls for violent protest to work in Singapore

Did I say I was from there? I'm gonna neither confirm nor deny that one, I kinda like having the benefit of a doubt! :rofl:

Whelp, but seriously though, I haven't really heard of the Stonewall riots before and just glanced through on it (almost did a double take when they mentioned Compton, then realized it was Compton in San Francisco and not Los Angeles lol). But what I read about the Singapore government is that there isn't a need to be another incident like that to happen there, they're a pretty pragmatic bunch. They don't treat homosexuality like it's some form of big evil, but at the same time they've got the large majority of the citizens to appease. Religious reasons or not, they're still a conservative bunch. And I'm assuming (and I hope) like the rest the world (not including US ) the government still works for the majority of the people. So there's nothing they can do unless the society's thinking changes for the better. Though I give you that one about the police being too adept at breaking skulls, they don't practice police brutality but god help anyone who wants to start a riot! :rofl:

 

[dargelos]

If you have some time to spend, the man who knows more about gay rights campaigning than anyone is Peter Tatchell. His website is funerealy slow coz he can't afford the bandwidth, so go cook a five course dinner while the site is loading, then be amazed at what he's done.
I don't know if you live in Singapore or not but;
Apple do, Facebook do, Google do, NSA do, GCHQ do.
Enjoy the benefit of the doubt.

 

[tonka]

For a country like Singapore, signaling to the world that you are a modern, progressive
society probably matters a lot.
And gay rights have become the number one signal. A strange place for us, but here we are.
And I expect these countries are realizing that gay rights are a pretty easy part of a civil rights agenda. Woman's rights? Hard and slow. Woman are half the society and enmeshed in traditional ways. Ethnic/racial minorities are usually isolated and are the "other". Gays are small in number, and are less and less seen as the "other".

Of course this signal has two edges. Commodity export countries (Russia, Saudi Arabia) don't care about such signals. And for countries that want to signal an antimodern, antiwestern stance, gay are a ripe target.