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The Advocate
August 07, 2004
Singapore to host Asia's biggest gay
festival, August 7-9
This weekend the conservative city-state of Singapore
will play host to what is being promoted as Asia's biggest
gay and lesbian festival, according to a report by Agence
France-Presse. A record 8,000 revelers are estimated
to attend the fourth annual party in what is expected
to be a lively boost to Singapore's emerging reputation
as one of Asia's premier gay tourism and entertainment
hubs. Stuart Koe, the chief executive of regional gay
Web site Fridae.com, which is organizing the event,
said the three-day festival beginning Saturday, August
7, was projected to generate $5.8 million in tourism
revenue. "We have large numbers of people coming
from Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, and the United States,"
Koe told AFP, adding that the numbers of partygoers
had grown from 1,500 in the event's first year in 2001.
"There's nothing else like this in Asia. It's really
the only event on this scale."
The festival is expected to increase tensions between
Singapore and Thailand over which country can lay claim
to the title of Asia's gay tourism capital after a Bangkok-based
lobby group was formed last week to win back the pink
dollar from the city-state, AFP reports. However, Koe
stressed the event, which coincides with Singapore's
National Day celebrations on Monday and boasts some
of the region's best DJs at its beach and nightclub
parties, is not targeted solely at the gay and lesbian
community. "This is an event that welcomes gays,
lesbians, bisexuals, heterosexuals. It's an event that
does not discriminate against anybody," he said.
"We are trying to create an event that puts prejudices
aside and really empowers people to be who they are."
But many gay activists question whether the Singapore
government is cynically chasing gay tourism dollars
rather than genuinely trying to encourage a more tolerant
and open society. Indeed, gay sex is still outlawed
in the nation, and authorities are maintaining a ban
on gay groups registering as societies. "All [the
government leaders] are interested in is the entertainment
dollar, not rights and freedoms and liberalization of
the mind," local gay rights activist Alex Au told
AFP. Au's People Like Us group, which represents Singapore's
gay and lesbian community, has been trying to become
registered as a society since 1996, with its most recent
effort failing in March this year.
The government restrictions reflect a self-confessed
double standard on the part of the nation's leaders
toward gays. Singapore prime minister Goh Chok Tong
said in July last year that gays would be allowed to
work in civil service, while a first-ever help center
catering specifically to gays opened a few months later
offering phone counseling services and medical and legal
advice. The city-state has also seen many gay-friendly
clubs, karaoke pubs, saunas, restaurants, and fashion
outlets open in recent years. Yet Goh insisted last
year that gay sex acts would not be decriminalized because
of opposition from Singapore's conservative majority
Chinese population as well as the Muslim community.
"The heartlanders are still conservative. You can
call it double standard, but sometimes it is double
standard. They are conservative," he said. "And
for the Muslims, it's religion, it's not the law. Islam
openly says the religion is against gay practice."
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