News and Opinions

Hate Crime in Singapore

Written by sayoni on . Posted in LGBT News & Politics

This news was reported in the Straits Times.

3 others in Orchard Towers brawl will be sentenced Nov 6
By Sujin Thomas

BIRTHDAY party celebrations at an Orchard Towers pub last November turned ugly when six men ended up beating another to death.

After he was assaulted in the early hours of Nov 23, Suhaimi Sulong, 37, was taken unconscious to the Singapore General Hospital.

He died an hour later from head and neck injuries.

Yesterday, three of his attackers – Muhammad Ridhwan Mohd Roslan, 20, Ho Ching Boon, 17, and Lai Chee Kuen, 17 – were sent to the reformative training centre.

Islamic Body in Malaysia Bans Lesbian Sex

Written by sayoni on . Posted in LGBT News & Politics

This news article is taken from here.

KUALA LUMPUR – ONE of Malaysia’s highest Islamic bodies has banned females from dressing or behaving like men and engaging in lesbian sex, saying it was forbidden by the religion.

The National Fatwa Council on Thursday issued its ruling following a two-day meeting that discussed recent cases of young women apparently behaving like men and exhibiting homosexual tendencies, state news agency Bernama reported.

Council chairman Abdul Shukor Husin told Bernama many young women admired the way men dress, behave and socialise, violating human nature and denying their femininity.

‘It is unacceptable to see women who love the male lifestyle including dressing in the clothes men wear,’ Mr Abdul Shukor was quoted as saying.

‘(Masculine behaviour) becomes clearer when they start to have sex with someone of the same gender, that is woman and woman,’ he said.

‘In view of this, the National Fatwa Council which met today have decided and taken the stand that such acts are forbidden and banned,’ he said.

Dear Singapore

Written by (Guest Writers) on . Posted in LGBT News & Politics

This poem was written by a Guest Writer, Judith Sarah

Dear Singapore,

Do you know who I am?

Perhaps you already know me

By my name, and 7-digit ID

But I guess that's where your knowledge ends

So well Hello, I'm on a mission.

To help you understand

That I will be who I am;

So please Singapore, just listen.

___

I'm a girl birthed from your Singaporean soil

Right into your ideal Singaporean family-

2.2 children, HDB flat, parents,

And of course, bill-paying perennially.

I've spent a lifetime going to your best schools,

Won all your book prizes, and scholarship money;

Now at eighteen, and none the wiser,

But somehow with you, I'm still quite happy.

I'm the girl who used to think

That you and I were through,

But who now just can't help writing

To you, about you, for you.

___

But really, who am I to you?

You scrutinize me through your prescribed glasses,

In this great nation of myopia;

You ruthlessly label me a criminal,

In this law-and-order-Utopia.

So to you I am simply that delinquent

Who craves cigarettes and thrives on rage;

Who somehow managed to break 5 of your laws,

Before her legal age.

You see me as one who can never fit

Into your perfect mould of 'living';

The woman who may never bear you

Those children you've been so badly craving.

To you, I will always be the eroder of your social fabric.

I want to love you, Singapore.

But can you ever love me back?

Interview with Kanako Otsuji, Japan’s first openly lesbian politician

Written by sayoni on . Posted in LGBT News & Politics

 

Kanako Otsuji became Japan's first openly lesbian politician when she was elected to the Osaka Prefectural Assembly in April 2003 at the age of 28 – making her the youngest person ever to be elected to the Assembly.

In 2007, Ms. Otsuji was an official Democratic Party of Japan candidate. She lost the Upper House election with 38,229 votes. If she had won, she would have been Japan's first openly gay national politician.

Over breakfast, she talked to Sayoni about being an openly gay politician in Japan.

 

What motivated you to get involved in politics?

The biggest reason is that I'm a lesbian. I have been a minority in society and it took me quite a long time to accept myself. I questioned myself over my sexual orientation for 4 to 5 years.

Broken Promises Part II: HIV positive man prosecuted for s377A (Singapore)

Written by sayoni on . Posted in LGBT News & Politics

This was reported in the Straits Times on 8th May.

IN THE first case of its kind, a chef infected with HIV was charged in court yesterday with engaging in oral sex with a 16-year-old without first informing him of the risks of contracting the virus that causes Aids.Chan Mun Chiong, 43, pleaded guilty to that charge as well as to another of committing an act of gross indecency with the teen.

The Ministry of Health summons charge said he had oral sex without first telling the teenager about the HIV risk. He also failed to get him to voluntarily agree to accept that risk. The offence carries a fine of up to $10,000 or up to two years in jail, or both.

The sex charge said that the bespectacled, spiky-haired man and the boy performed the sex acts in a cubicle of a men’s toilet at the Northpoint Shopping Centre in Yishun on Sept 15 last year. For the gross indecency charge, he faces a jail term of up to two years.

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