Some of you might know this, but I have written a load of LGBTQ characters for my fiction work this year, and counting. Now, I’m working on my first gay character, Lohit Sharma, who will star in his own short story which I hope to get published. It greatly disappoints me that while I make these strides in character creations that I am reminded of living in a country where something like this can happen.
If you did not click that link here’s the gist. Adam Lambert, an American gay singer, is being protested against performing in Singapore for our end of the year celebrations.
This petition is an embarrassment to Singaporeans. It demeans us. Makes us less. Shows out stupidity. Our ignorance. Our lack of empathy. So I am going to scream at this wall and tear down the main points of that petition until there is naught left, even dust.
Let’s rock. Let’s roll.
1: Adam Lambert’s shows are sexualized
The petition points to Adam Lambert’s 2009 AMA performance, where he pulled off high-profile acts that could be described as sexual. He kissed a male band member, and had a dancer simulate oral sex.
There’s one thing I thought was fantastic about his AMA performance. He showed the double standards of the people. The things Lambert did in his acts were things female performers have done for years. Katy Perry kisses a girl in almost every performance, including dancing with a blow-up lipstick dildo. Guess what happened?
She performed at Singapore’s sports hub earlier this year.
This is double standards.
2: Adam Lambert is indecent
Another piece of Lambert’s work the petition pointed to was his music video, Another Lonely Night. They specifically pointed to two of the four focal characters, one who was a male stripper, and another, a cabaret dancer, labelling them as “performing acts of indecency”.
This is completely and ridiculously unjustified. The video is meant to show how even people who are working jobs we deem as demeaning are still humans like us in the end, who has lonely nights despite doing work that make others feel together. A kid could watch that video and figure out the meaning.
The petitioners, calling the video indecent, is literally saying that people who work in these jobs are indecent, despite knowing nothing about the situations of these so-called ‘indecent’ people!
Here’s another link to the video. It starts at 3:13 minutes. Pause it there. Look at the face of that actor. Do you know that face? That is the same damn face everyone gives after a hard day of work. These are not ‘inhumans’. These are people. Just like you and me.
Here’s the thing, Adam Lambert is known for one thing. Pushing the limit and showing the culture of the world we live in. And art, music included, does those things very, very well. Now, we are showing him the backwards culture of our country.
3: Adam Lambert is gay
“…he is well-known for his active promotion of a highly sexualized lifestyle and LGBT rights, both of which are contrary to mainstream Singaporean values.” – petition quote
Seriously. What the ever loving fuck is wrong with you people?
That was the first thing I zoomed in on when I read the petition. People had trouble with him kissing a male band member, and that was what I based my initial reaction on, shown here in screenshot.
He’s gay. Gays kiss men. That’s what gay people do. Being surprised he kissed a man is like being surprised the sun rose in the morning. Both are bound to happen. They are both natural and found throughout nature.
Arguing against LGBT lifestyle literally means you are going against nature. Anyone who says these are not normal are literally ‘not natural’ themselves. If you are against LGBTQ, you are the one that is, by the logic of nature, not normal.
4: His performance will cause the country to become divisive
More or less divisive than what is happening right now?
NEXT!
5: Singapore is a family centric country
Yes. That is true. Singapore is a family centric country. So, what’s the problem there?
What?
Oh…the family unit consists of one mother and one father. I see.
I guess that must mean I must not be in a family, given that I have a father, a mother, a step mother, a step father, four step siblings, and one blood sister. Well, that’s terrible, I have two moms! I must not be part of a family! Oh! The family unit is broken!
You know, I tend to look down on my youngest brother most of the time. But I used to be proud of him a few years back. I’m not sure if he holds the same ideology now as he did then, but what he did all those years ago still rang through in my mind.
We were visiting the in-laws, and he was asked why he called my mother ‘大妈’, which translates to ‘eldest mother’. He replied, “Doesn’t everyone have two moms?”
My family is fucked up. We’ve got issues. That’s why I’m mentally ill. But no matter how bad it got, I know these people are my family. It did not matter if I had two mothers or that I had never met my stepfather. It did not matter if my elder sister is a devout Christian and I a staunch atheist. It did not matter that our blood did not match right. We are a family unit.
Are you saying the child adopted by two lovely homosexual couple is not in a family? So, the mother and father who abandoned the kid is the real “family”? What about widows and widowers? What about a child raised by a single parent after a divorce? Are they not in a family?
Because a family unit, as supposedly defined, is one man and one woman. What about kids in an orphanage who looks up to the carers? What about kids whose parents are killed by accidents and war? Are they in a ‘family’?
I treat my close friends as family. I treat my scout brothers as family. The people in Singapore are my family. The people of the world are also my family. Families are the people in wherever you call home, and I call Earth my home. All you puny, stupid, insignificant Earthlings waging your insignificant wars against insignificant issues…we are family, I hate you all just as much as I hate the people living under this roof I inhabit.
You want to define ‘family’?
Come at me.
I will fight your conviction with my own willpower, tooth, claws and all.
If you think your narrow-minded, apathetic and childish concept of family can overwhelm mine, give it your best shot.
So, in conclusion…
Adam, my brother from another mother, come to Singapore. Though I won’t be here when you arrive as I’ll be visiting my sister in Melbourne, I send out this invitation to you with open arms on behalf of all sane Singaporeans.
Because if there’s one thing Singapore can do to remind you of America, it is apparently the homophobia and ignorance from 19-fucking-50s.
The rest of you Singaporeans, go sign this petition instead.
In case you are curious, this is a list of LGBTQ characters I have written this year:
Amelia Smith (Lesbian)
Clover Parker (Lesbian)
Jacqueline Fertilans (Transgender-female)
Lucinda Baerrinska (Bisexual)
Adelaide Wiltkins (Lesbian)
Lohit Sharma (Gay)
George Carpenter (Gay)
December 9, 2015 at 18:23
There really are so many inequalities towards gay people. I notice that in general, being a lesbian seems to somehow be more socially acceptable than being man-on-man gay. Why …? I mean two girls hold hands and kiss in the street not many care. Two men do it … “STOP SHOVING YOUR GAY AGENDA DOWN OUR THROATS!”
Yeah. Total double standard.
My personal opinion as that as long as you are both two, consenting, human adults (who aren’t related) you should be free to love who you wish. Love is love and it is beautiful no matter whether you love someone with the same genitals as you or not.
As for these ‘arguments’ they’re stupid! During my temping days, I worked with a girl whose parents died when she was a kid and she was raised by her grandfather and uncle. So she was brought up by two people of the same gender (although obviously not a homosexual couple!). People would be fine with that – they admired them for their strength and love. But a gay couple decide to adopt a child …? Absolutely not! The one I hate the most is that argument where they say ‘But they’ll force their kid to be gay!’. If the sexuality of parents decided their child’s sexuality then why are there gay children in the first place? Surely if this ‘argument’ were true, we would all be straight and never have a homosexual community. So if children ‘learn’ their sexual preference form their parents and still end up gay … that must mean … one or both f their parents are secretly gay!!! How else could they have learned it?
I actually worked with a guy who was homophobic because he thought all gays were out to sleep with him. So I pointed out all the female’s around us and said ‘would you sleep with her?’ Now some he said ‘yeah probably’ but when it got to some of the older employees (one who was sixty) and some who he didn’t find attractive he said no.
So I said ‘but you’re a heterosexual man and they have a vagina …. isn’t that all you look for…?’
So he (quite predictably) said ‘well no I mean I don’t like older women they remind me of my grandmother and I like women to have certain qualities’
‘So what you’re saying is you have a ‘type’, then, yes?’ I replied quickly and as he nodded I continued: ‘Yeah it’s the same for gay people. It’s not enough for them that you have a penis too. You might be too old, or too young for them, you might not have the qualities they’re looking for.’
The guy just said ‘yeah well it’s different for benders, they’ll take any ass they can get since they’re a minority they can’t afford to be fussy’. (Can you believe another human being said this?!?!?)
The following week he got slapped with a sexual harassment charge and a formal warning for approaching a young lesbian lady (whom everyone knew was gay and were okay with it) and saying ‘Spend a night with me and I’ll convert you back to the right team’. (You can see the kind of person he was…)
*Shakes head*
Anyway as far as I’m concerned I don’t care what your sexual preference is (as long as it’s, ya know, not illegal like paedophilia). As I say, if two consenting adults love one another … who the hell cares?
I saw this petition and my first thought was ‘I take it they wouldn’t have done the same for Madonna …? I mean she’s kissed loads of ladies on stage.’
I truly hope Adam Lambert gets to play. Is there a counter petition I can sign? If not we should start one! This is idiocy!
December 11, 2015 at 09:32
There is a counter petition, but it has thankfully, been fully signed. And Adam Lambert has been confirmed to be playing in Singapore, which is a win for sanity. Thanks for sharing you story. Homophobes should not be allowed to get away with doing and saying the things you’ve described.
March 31, 2016 at 17:34
I really like what you guys are up too. This sort of clever work and exposure!
Keep up the wonderful works guys I’ve incorporated you guys to my personal blogroll.