Singapore gay history: 2002

From 25 January to 24 February 2002 with occasional breaks, theatre company Toy Factory staged a Singaporean adaptation of the British play by Jonathan Harvey entitled "Beautiful thing" at the Toy Factory Theatrette, 17A Smith Street. Directed by Beatrice Chia, it told the story of 2 teenage boys finding love and the prejudice that not only exists in laws, but in people's hearts.

On 22 February 2002, local LGBT web portal SgBoy held its 3rd anniversary bash for the first time at an open-air venue - the fields of Fort Canning Green. The highlight of the event was the crowning of Mr. SgBoy 2002.

On 26 February 2002, popular radio and TV host, Phin Wong, as Fridae's new entertainment columnist, contributed his first movie review, one of the British/French gay film "Intimacy", to the website.

On 9 March 2002, Fridae.com celebrated its first anniversary with The Black Party held at Dbl 0 in Singapore, featuring guest DJ Jojo, who produced the extremely popular Frisky parties in Sydney. When first launched, Hong Kong-based Fridae was the principal sponsor and official portal of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras 2001, sharing the grandstand with the likes of Telstra and Qantas Airways. Within one year, it could boast over 100,000 visitors and 1.2 million page views a month and was easily the largest English-language gay and lesbian portal in the region.

From 21 to 31 March 2002, Livid Room Productions, a feminist theatre company, staged a lesbian play entitled Stop Kiss at Toy Factory, 17A Smith Street. It told the story of Callie (Adelina Ong) and Sara (Esther Yap) who find themselves falling in love after a string of heterosexual relationships. When their courtship culminates in a public kiss, they become victims of a hate crime. While Sara lies in a coma in hospital, Callie's finds herself questioning her identity and her faith in their relationship.

On 5 April 2002, The New Paper reported that a 22-year-old male Temasek Polytechnic student had allegedly posed nude in the infamous soft porn Oriental Guys (OG) magazine, which although produced and printed in Singapore, was banned from sale locally. An anonymous email including lewd pictures had been sent to his school principal. In a similar case some 6 years ago, a National University of Singapore medical student who purportedly posed nude in the same magazine left for the US to complete his education after being the subject of several reports and debates in the media.

In April 2002, the Board of Film Censors reportedly sent distributors of the award-winning movie "Lan Yu", by gay director Stanley Kwan, a letter saying that it had been banned under current guidelines and because it would be "undermining the Singapore government's effort of promoting family values". The film, about the tortured romance between a male student prostitute and an older businessman, was however screened with cuts at the 2002 Singapore International Film Festival on 18 April.

In April 2002, Lianhe Wanbao, a popular Chinese-language evening tabloid published an article entitled "Good husband has rendezvous with lad in public pool" which reported that a 48-year-old married man and his 27-year-old lover of 2 years each received a one-month jail term after confessing in court that they had committed an act of gross indecency at River Valley Pool on 11 July 2001 at 4:35pm. The pair had waited until the other swimmers left before they had oral sex in the pool, underwater.

In June 2002, Action for AIDS (AfA) relaunched its HIV/AIDS/STI prevention programme targeting Men-who-have-Sex-with-Men (MSM) with an appeal for a massive number of volunteers. The programme aimed to involve MSM venues and businesses as part of a concerted attempt to deal with the significant number of MSM diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in Singapore.

Despite initial concerns that there would be Government resistance to another gay Nation party, more than 2500 red-and-white dress-themed people gathered at the Fountain Gardens and Musical Fountain in Sentosa on Thursday 9 August 2003 for Singapore’s 37th birthday and 2nd pride party,. Nation.02, co-organised by Fridae and Kinemat Productions was sponsored by Qantas and other corporations including Pepsi, Planet Fitness and The Gallery Hotel. Partygoers had a choice of 2 dance areas and were treated to a specially-produced laser show by Oracle Lasers, percussion by Idham Budiman, and visual effects by Fake from Kinemat. Attendance by regional visitors was even higher than the previous year's bash, drawing close to 500 partygoers, mainly from Hong Kong, Thailand and Taiwan,.

On 17 August 2002, RedQueen!, the social and discussion mailing list for gay, bisexual and questioning women organised Singapore's first women's safe-sex workshop and potluck party.

In October 2002, the Emmy award-winning television series and gay favourite, Six Feet Under, was broadcast on cable (HBO) in Singapore but the gay storyline was snipped by the censorship board.

On 18 October 2002, Mark Chan became the first openly gay local musician to be profiled on Fridae. Chan, considered by most as a pioneer of the Singapore music scene, is a multi-talented artiste with six albums and numerous other collaborations under his belt.

On Friday, 15 November 2002, gay activist Alex Au won the Utopia Award in the 3rd annual award presentation held in conjunction with the Bangkok Pride Festival at Freeman Dance Arena, Soi Freeman on Silom Road in Bangkok. The award by Utopia (Utopia-asia.com), Asia's gay and lesbian web portal and tour operator, recognises individuals and groups for their pioneering contributions to gay and lesbian communities in Asia.

From 22 to 23 November 2002, the Singapore AIDS Conference, a biennial meeting since 1998, was held for the 3rd time at the Singapore Exhibition and Convention Centre. The theme of the year’s conference was 'Change - Attitudes, Behaviour- the Future'.

On November 30th, the gay-organised "3D Project" hosted "3D", a Diva and DJ filled Mega Dance Party on Sentosa Island's Siloso Beach leading into World AIDS Day 2002 on 1 December,. It aimed to raise S$250,000 for Action for AIDS.

In November 2002, newly declassified UK naval documents revealed that possibly 50% of its servicemen had indulged in homosexual sex at some time in their naval service life and many had visited brothels in Singapore's then legendary Bugis Street in the 1960s as soon as their ship docked. A document written by the navy's medical director general in 1969, described Singapore's transwoman prostitutes as "very beautiful" and who "dress well and smell delicious" He added, "They perfect the female walk, stance and mannerisms and some even undergo surgery to complete the illusion".

On 1 December 2002, the Sunday Times printed an extract of a speech made by Minister of State for Health, Balaji Sadasivan, an ethnically Indian neurosurgeon who was fluent in Mandarin. He said, 'Research has also shown that the brain of homosexuals is structurally different from heterosexuals. It is likely therefore that the homosexual tendency is imprinted in the brain in utero and homosexuals must live with the tendencies that they inherit as a result of the structural changes in their brain. Within the moral and cultural constraints of our society, we should be tolerant of those who may be different from most of us.' This was the first time a Cabinet Minister had publicly quoted scientific findings about homosexuality:.

On Saturday, 22 December 2002, Club Herstory, Singapore's institutional lesbian party held its relaunch party after a brief hiatus, rebranding itself as simply, "Herstory" and announcing its new feature-packed website (www.herstory.ws). Its monthly parties were now to be held the on first Sunday of every month at Velvet Underground, a section of the Zouk disco complex.

On 28 December 2002, Fridae held its year-end bash called Snowball at Pavilion, Far East Square. The Pan Pacific hotel was official hotel for the event, offering special rates to tourists attending the party. The sponsors were Qantas, Anchor Beer, Evian, Cuervo Tequila, Remy silver, Boom Boom Room, Clorets, Juice and The Link.

In December 2002, the Department of STI Control (DSC) released the results of Singapore's first study of the demographics and sexual behaviour of men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM). It was a retrospective analysis of 124 homosexual and bisexual patients attending the DSC clinic in 2001.