Singapore more free for gays?

[stayfrosty55]

Ive been pretty busy working in the American Embassy in Singapore, so Ive been away from the forum for awhile..sorry! I missed it.

While working and temporarily living in Singapore, I have noticed something pretty interesting...All the girls are holding hands! Even some guys are holding hands! With so many non coed-schools for children, girls and guys are a little confused about what to do with the opposite sex. Its even part of growing up in Singapore for girls to hold hands with one another. Doesn't mean they are all gay...just the ones that start rubbing up each other's arms on the subway! Anyways...if two guys in Singapore hold hands, its no longer a rare occurence everyone has to turn heads to look at kind of thing, but if it happens in America....A much bigger reception don't you think? Interesting how the land of no littering or keying cars or else you get beaten is a free'er place then America, where life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is what we preside on. Any thoughts?

[crispy]

it is a cultural thing all over Asia. Don' t read anything into it

[Jesse69]

When I was in the Phillipines I saw a woman holding hands with a man crossdressor who was wearing a girls top / pants outfit! And this was in a busy mall. Like even the girls like crossdressors. And I saw a few crossdressors in drag in the mall and this was Xmas.

I shopped for a bra, panty, and pantyhose all in a busy store and they didn't even acknowledge anything about that.

[Deanna2]

I've seen CD's and TG's in Singapore in all sorts of meeting-people type jobs and they make no big deal of it and the customers don't react adversely. Throughout east and southeast Asia I've seen men on the street in daytime holding hands - even men in military uniform.

Like Crispy says, it's a cultural thing and quite normal.

[sarah]

The trouble with european people is they have far to many issues ...There is so much we could use from the asian way of life ..Lets all move and have fun...

[Val Tan]

i find it strange that i live in singapore and my view seems different... in my opinion, (younger) singaporeans are still pretty close-minded with regards to homosexuality and TG/CD issues.

girls holding hands and stuff are actually pretty normal. but when it comes to guys, believe me, people will notice. maybe they are too polite to stare or react, but once out of earshot, negative comments will be made.

as for TG/CD, some local (ie, singaporean) forum had a thread on "perverted" blogs. several posts later, someone posted a link to my CD blog, along with the comment of "disgusting" (among others).

more recently, on a very popular local forum, someone posted a thread about his neighbor, who would go to work in normal, guy clothes. but once he returned, he would change to female clothes (presumbly he is pretty open and has left the house en femme). the post carried on to mention that the neighbor gets other like-minded visitors, who would then leave after a few hours (there is an implied meaning to that sentence). the tone of the post definitely wasn't friendly. the replies he got also weren't nice.

but one thing is for sure, gays in singapore are trying to be heard. people are definitely more open-minded than before. but not that open.