9 Jun 2005

Singapore bans popular gay party

Health minister blames annual event for rise in gay HIV infections
SINGAPORE (AP) | Jun 8, 7:19 PM

Singapore has banned one of Asia's largest annual gay-themed outdoor parties because it is "contrary to public interest,'' police said on Wednesday.

The decision came a few months after a senior official in this tightly controlled Southeast Asian island nation blamed such parties for the rise in HIV infections among gays.

Hong Kong-based Fridae.com, an Internet-based network of Asian gays, applied through its Singapore subsidiary, Jungle Media, for a permit to hold its annual Nation beach party here in August.

But the application has been turned down because the "police assessment is that the event is likely to be organized as a gay party, which is contrary to public interest in general," a police statement said, without elaborating.

The past four Nation parties were held in Singapore. At least 8,000 revelers attended the last one, generating an estimated $6 million in tourist revenue, organizers say.

On Fridae.com's Web site, organizers said they would hold this year's three-day Nation '05 on Thailand's resort island of Phuket instead.

Singapore official Balaji Sadasivan said international gay parties 'allowed gays from high-prevalence societies to fraternise with local gay men.'

In March, Singapore's Junior Health Minister Balaji Sadasivan suggested that a rise in HIV infections among gays in Singapore was linked to gatherings like the Nation parties which, he said, "allowed gays from high-prevalence societies to fraternise with local gay men, seeding the infection in the local community.''

Fridae.com chief Stuart Koe said on the Web site that he was disappointed by Singapore's rejection of the license application.

"This is a direct contradiction to previous calls for embracing of diversity,'' he said.

Singapore, a city-state of 4 million people, has taken some steps to loosen its notorious social controls. But it bans gay sex, defining it as "an act of gross indecency'' punishable by a maximum of two years in jail. There have been few prosecutions, however.

The number of new, officially reported AIDS cases in Singapore reached 311 in 2004, nearly 30 percent more than in the previous year.



10 comments:

Anonymous said...

The government did a good job by banning the gay party man!Very Good!

Gilbert Koh aka Mr Wang said...

Fridae did a good job by moving the gay party to Phuket. See here.

Btw, the article is mistaken. Gay sex is punishable with a maximum of life imprisonment under section 377 of the Penal Code.

Anonymous said...

Good that they move to Phuket. Good them for them good for us... Let it remain this way.

Gilbert Koh aka Mr Wang said...

How about our horny Ah Peks?

You think it's good for them to leave Toa Payoh and Hougang, and move to Batam too?

Anonymous said...

haha! and how about those pretty gers in geylang.. a camera that moves them away from geylang to aljunied or sims drive? Haha!!

Anonymous said...

They should be moved too the if they try to hold a party celebrating their causes too lol...

Hold the party at Phuket or Batam by all means :)

Anonymous said...

Also i don't understand why gays are being equated with horny ah pehs and geylang pretty ladies...

Sexual preferances is personal and we should respect that, but in my opinion celebrating it by holding public parties quite another thing.

Hell S'pore does not even allow the majority hetrosexual population to hold parties celebrating their sexuality, why the homosexuals should be any different?

Anonymous said...

heterosexuals don't need to celebrate their sexuality because it has never been repressed the way it has been for homosexuals.

With the amount of heterosexual sex going around in Joo Chiat and other such areas, not to mention at the many 'upmarket' night spots, how does a minority group threated the containment of AIDS so badly?

Anonymous said...

heard from my friends that there's going to be a regulation that forbids foreigners or Singaporean visiting prostitutes abroad eh? Not sure about the whole thing.. :)

Gilbert Koh aka Mr Wang said...

This comment:

"S'pore does not even allow the majority hetrosexual population to hold parties celebrating their sexuality, why the homosexuals should be any different?"

... would possibly have some merit, if the reason given by the government for declining the licence is merely that the party has a sexual theme.

However, the reason given is that the party has a homosexual theme.

Therefore, Fan Ren, your comment carries no validity.