S01E21 Restricted (Artistic)

As an active member of most of Singapore's modern queer groups since the 90s, including being part of many of the groups and events we have heard mentioned in the course of these episodes, like ATLUS, Nation Party, Fridae.com, IndigNation, Pelangi Pride Centre, Oogachaga and more, Choo Lip Sin has had a front row seat in observing how the LGBTQ+ community has grown in the last three decades. In this episode we step back in time to hear about how on-line connections like bulletin boards and internet relay chat in the early days of the internet brought the community of largely English-speaking gay and bi- men together in the mid 90s. We hear about groups like Men After Work (MAW), HongLimPark.com, SGBoy and Blowing Wind. This coincided with the more open governing style of the then Prime Minister, Goh Chok Tong which led to the blossoming of spaces for self-expression from karaoke bars to saunas, and the flowering of queer theatre in Singapore in what seemed like a short-lived golden age for the LGBTQ scene here. He describes how that changed in the mid 2000s, and why Section 377A then became the focus for activism when it had not been that significant in the decade before. Other subscription, listening and following options here: ⁠https://bit.ly/m/semuakita #lgbtq #queer #oralhistory #singapore