Our commentary on recognising non-religious Singaporeans has been published on Secular World, the magazine of Atheist Alliance International. A slightly edited and shorter version of the commentary was published earlier in August as a readers’ comment on Yahoo.

Our organisation is a member of the AAI. While the AAI has started as a coalition of atheist groups in the US, it has since expanded into a global network of atheist, agnostic, skeptic, and humanist groups. Last year, In 2013, the AAI was granted special consultative status by the UN.

The HSS thanks AAI for publishing our commentary. Read the rest of the magazine here:

http://www.atheistalliance.org/media/secularworld/2014/SW-Oct-Dec-2014.pdf

The Independent Singapore, an independent news website, wrote about our Human Worth and Dignity event, held in July 2014. In the speech, Alex Au talked about the difficulties of changing mindsets about LGBT despite many years of activism. Lynette Chua talked about the pragmatic resistence strategy of many activist groups. There was also talk about how a radical critique of religion will eventually have to take place in order to overturn discrimination.

URL: http://theindependent.sg/?p=6799

The article was subsequently cited by Gay Asia News. We also summarised the event on our blog.

What gay activism means for these two

August 12th, 2014 

By Simon Vincent

“You can’t talk about gay issues without talking about politics,” said Alex Au in a discussion hosted by the Humanist Society of Singapore on Sunday afternoon at the SMU Administration building.

Called Human Worth and Dignity: Two Stories of the LGBT Community in Singapore, the talk also featured Lynette Chua, author of Mobilizing Gay Singapore: Rights and Resistance in an Authoritarian State.

Au shared poignant and humorous anecdotes about his engagement, as a gay man and activist, with the Singapore state and society.

He said it had been 21 years since he first joined People Like Us, a local gay advocacy group, which had “run into trouble with the authorities.”

2000 was a “seminal year” for Au because it was the first time that The Straits Times had interviewed him. Au recalled how for the sake of “balance” an interview with a psychologist was positioned alongside his article.

“I got the bigger share of the feature, so that was progress in a way,” he said, drawing laughter from the audience.

While highlighting organisations like 7-11 which have hired LGBT people as front-line workers, Au expressed scepticism over just how much progress has been made. “How many people have we convinced with our arguments?”

Following Au’s talk, Lynette Chua discussed the main themes of her book. She likened gay activism in Singapore to “pragmatic resistance.” Gay activists, according to her, have to balance between “toeing the line” and “pushing boundaries.”

“You have to come across as non-confrontational,” she said.

When a gay haunt called Rascals was raided by the police in 1993, its patrons wrote a letter of protest. Chua said the protest was framed as a complaint against the police officers for overstepping their boundaries. “There was nothing about gay rights.”

While noting the greater acceptance of the LGBT community today, Chua drew attention to what she saw as a “problem of not being inclusive enough.” She said LGBT issues tend to be framed around gay men.

When asked about the recent Christian opposition to the LGBT community, Au said he was quite confident that the movement will eventually lose steam.

Chua felt that opposition from the Muslim quarters of society should also be taken into account. The state is more fearful when it comes to the Muslim community, she said.

Vincent Wijeysingha, who was among the audience members, said “a radical critique of religion” has to take place. The churches would grow, not diminish, because they are “oriented to money.”

When interviewed about his stance, he noted that people would have to negotiate laws such as The Religious Harmony Act. Nevertheless, he felt that it was important to “begin the process of questioning religion.”

“The radical critique will have to occur, it will be painful,” he said. “My experience of critiquing the archbishop was painful as well, but it has to start somewhere.”

Sharing his thoughts on how progress can be made on LGBT issues, Paul Tobin, the president of the Humanist Society, said: “I think it’s about getting people on your side, people who may be your opponents at the moment, but as long as they accept you for who you are, everybody wins.”

– See more at: http://theindependent.sg/?p=6799#sthash.ZikXUKmq.dpuf

TODAY reported Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs Yaacob Ibrahim saying that Singapore is a multiracial and secular society and those who want to express support for a cause or a choice of lifestyle should express it in a way that does not divide the community.

In the article, the Humanist Society (Singapore) was mentioned as one of the signatories of an online statement signed by several civil societies expressing worry that the LGBT issue has been portrayed as a conflict between religious versus secular values. This followed the Wear White campaign launched by an Islamic religious teacher as a protest against homosexuality.

http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/support-cause-should-not-divide-community-yaacob

If the link is no longer working and you want to read the news article in full, please email us.

In a letter published in Today Voices (21st June 2014), Committee members Zheng Huifen and Tan Tatt Si argue why morality should be shaped by all, including the non-religious. In response to the Bishop of the Lutheran Church, Reverend Terry Kee’s comments on a recent Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) survey.

http://todayonline.com/voices/morality-should-be-shaped-all-spore

If the URL link is no longer working, contact us.

Original letter submitted to the press:

MORALITY SHOULD BE SHAPED BY ALL IN S’PORE

The Institute of Policy Studies’ (IPS) recently published survey on Religious Harmony (Matthews, Khamsya & Teo, 2014) is a goldmine of information. The Humanist Society (Singapore) (HSS) welcomes the opportunity to discuss attitudes regarding beliefs and morality. [Read more…]