 | This article contains promotional content .(September 2023) |
Dear Straight People is an LGBT media platform based in Singapore. Since its launch, Dear Straight People has gained prominence as one of Asia's leading LGBT publications. [1]
| This article contains promotional content .(September 2023) |
Dear Straight People is an LGBT media platform based in Singapore. Since its launch, Dear Straight People has gained prominence as one of Asia's leading LGBT publications. [1]
Founded by Sean Foo in July 2015, Dear Straight People first made a name for itself through its coming out stories, which included notable public figures such as Paralympic medalist Theresa Goh, influencer Edison Fan, actor Steven David Lim, actress Deborah Sim and the host of Drag Race Thailand, Pangina Heals.
Dear Straight People has collaborated with various LGBTQ+ organizations and groups over the years.
Notable collaborations include partnerships with the LGBTQ+ counseling center Oogachaga and the sex workers' rights group Project X, aimed at raising funds and awareness for their respective missions. [2]
Additionally, the platform has actively engaged in collaborations with companies to support Pride campaigns. In 2021, Dear Straight People partnered with Naumi Hotel Singapore to produce a pride campaign featuring a real-life married gay couple. [3] The campaign was noted for being the 'first time a hotel in Singapore has done such a high-profile paid partnership with an LGBTQ+ couple'. [4]
In 2017, Dear Straight People produced a music video for an LGBT cover of the Kit Chan song Home, performed by bisexual singer Lew Loh, which garnered attention and sparked discussions in Singapore. [5] Later that year, Dear Straight People organized a photo shoot called #Reasons4Repeal in support of the repeal of Section 377A. The photo shoot featured over 70 individuals, including former Mediacorp actor Julian Hee.
In 2019, the platform produced the documentary series "Same Love," consisting of three episodes showcasing same-sex couples in Singapore. The series premiered on "Dear Straight People's" YouTube channel on February 11, 2019. The first episode, featuring an openly gay Malay couple with an accepting mother, gained widespread attention and sparked controversy in Malaysia. [6]
In 2022, Dear Straight People produced Getaway , which made history as Singapore's first gay Boys Love web drama series. [7] Comprising 5 episodes, Getaway featured an openly queer cast from Singapore and Thailand. [7]
Getaway was a hit, with its first episode garnering over 2 million views on YouTube to date. In addition, the series was nominated for Content of the Year at the 2023 edition of Singapore's national broadcaster Mediacorp's content creator awards, The Pinwheels. [8]
Following Getaway's popular reception, Taiwan-based LGBT streaming service GagaOOLala purchased the rights to stream the series on their platform. On 28 September 2023, Getaway premiered on GagaOOLala. [9]
The LGBTQ community is a loosely defined grouping of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning individuals united by a common culture and social movements. These communities generally celebrate pride, diversity, individuality, and sexuality. LGBTQ activists and sociologists see LGBTQ community-building as a counterweight to heterosexism, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, sexualism, and conformist pressures that exist in the larger society. The term pride or sometimes gay pride expresses the LGBTQ community's identity and collective strength; pride parades provide both a prime example of the use and a demonstration of the general meaning of the term. The LGBTQ community is diverse in political affiliation. Not all people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender consider themselves part of the LGBTQ community.
These lists of television programs with LGBT characters include:
There are no statistics on how many LGBT people there are in Singapore or what percentage of the population they constitute. While homosexuality is legal in the country, the country is largely conservative.
There is a long history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender activity in Singapore. Male homosexuality was outlawed under British rule, despite being acknowledged among the local population. Following Japanese occupation during World War II and the country gaining independence, homosexuality and transvestism were visible as a street scene, and from the 1970s were catered for in some nightclubs. In that decade also, Singapore became a centre of gender-reassignment surgery.
Section 377A was a Singaporean law that criminalised sex between consenting adult males. It was introduced under British colonial rule in 1938 when it was added to the Penal Code by the colonial government. It remained a part of the Singapore body of law after the Penal Code review of 2007 which removed most of the other provisions in Section 377. It was subsequently repealed in its entirety in 2023.
The rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in Singapore have evolved over the decades. Same-sex sexual activity is legal for both males and females; for men it was officially legalised in 2022 after being de facto decriminalised since 2007, and for women it was always legal. Prior to 2022, same-sex sexual activity between males was de jure illegal under the British colonial-era Section 377A of the Penal Code. The law had been de facto unenforced for decades. In February 2022, the Court of Appeal in the Supreme Court reaffirmed that 377A cannot be used to prosecute men for having sex with other men, and that it is "unenforceable in its entirety". Transgender rights in the country are also progressive in the region, which included Singapore being the first country in Asia to legalise sex reassignment surgery in 1973.
Julian Hee is a former Singaporean Chinese actor and model. He was prominently a full-time Mediacorp artiste from 2001 to 2014. His younger brother, Haden Hee, 许立楷 was also a former Mediacorp artiste.
Pink Dot SG, known endonymously as Pink Dot, is a pride event that has occurred annually since 2009 in support of the LGBTQ community in Singapore. Attendees of Pink Dot events gather to form a "pink dot" to show support for inclusiveness, diversity and the freedom to love in the country. Pink Dot events typically include concert performances and booths sponsored by organizations that support the LGBT community and cause in addition to the event's name-brand formation.
Historically, the portrayal of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people in media has been largely negative if not altogether absent, reflecting a general cultural intolerance of LGBTQ individuals; however, from the 1990s to present day, there has been an increase in the positive depictions of LGBTQ people, issues, and concerns within mainstream media in North America. The LGBTQ communities have taken an increasingly proactive stand in defining their own culture, with a primary goal of achieving an affirmative visibility in mainstream media. The positive portrayal or increased presence of the LGBTQ communities in media has served to increase acceptance and support for LGBT communities, establish LGBTQ communities as a norm, and provide information on the topic.
LGBTQ+ media or gay media refers to media whose primary target audience is members of the LGBTQ community. Secondary targets are LGBTQ+ allies, and in some instances those who oppose gay rights may be targeted as a form of activism. Gay or queer media can also be defined as web sites, films, magazines and other cultural products that were created by queer individuals, or groups that are typically out, meaning that they are public or open about their identity. LGBTQ creators do not always include LGBTQ themes or issues in the media that they produce, but there are often at least subtle references to queerness in these media.
Singapore does not recognise same-sex marriages or civil unions. In 2022, the Parliament of Singapore passed a constitutional amendment giving itself "the power to define, regulate, protect and promote the institution of marriage".
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer+(LGBTQ+)music is music that focuses on the experiences of gender and sexual minorities as a product of the broad gay liberation movement.
Addicted, also known as Heroin, is a 2016 streaming television series based on the boys' love novel Are You Addicted? (你丫上瘾了) by Chai Jidan. The series is about two sixteen-year-old boys, Bai Luoyin and Gu Hai, who despite their social differences and personal history forge a close love relationship. Starring Timmy Xu and Huang Jingyu in their television debut, it premiered on January 29, 2016, and aired for three episodes weekly until February 23, 2016, when it was banned by Chinese authorities. The series' groundbreaking success and its subsequent ban brought attention to the taboo topic of homosexuality in mainland China. The series has since developed a cult following.
GagaOOLala is a Taiwan-based worldwide subscription video on demand service, specializing in uncensored LGBT-related films, LGBT made-for television films and contemporary LGBT television drama series. It has partnered with Japanese-based Line TV, initially in Thailand, and then across Asia, to provide the service with GagaOOLala-made TV series. GagaOOLala is owned by Portico Media, whose also carried pay TV channels for Taiwan cable TV provider along with Chunghwa Telecom's MOD platform.
Silent Walls is a 2023 Singaporean thriller television series telecast on Mediacorp Channel 8 and produced by Ochre Pictures. It stars Tasha Low, Ayden Sng, Mindee Ong, Tay Ying, Charlie Goh, Foo Fang Rong, Shane Pow, Ferlyn Wong, Macy Chen, Alfred Sng, Desmond Shen, Desmond Ng, Jojo Goh, Andie Chen, Bernard Tan and Chen Shucheng. The series centres around a mansion and the lives of its occupants in 1938, 1963, 1988 and 2023.
Sean Foo is a Singaporean entrepreneur, filmmaker and advocate known for his contributions to the LGBT community through his work with Dear Straight People.
Getaway is a Singaporean gay web series known for being the country's first Boys Love web series. The series was launched on YouTube on 23 May 2022.
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