Despite same-sex relations being decriminalized in Singapore in 2022, it continues to be a steep uphill battle for LGBTQIA+ rights there. From Gay marriage to inclusive sex education classes, the country's conservative politicians, with the backing of US far-right organizations, have been fighting tooth and nail against Queer-friendly legislation.

In this era of emboldened right-wing governments and outspoken evangelical religious groups around the world, activists Carissa Cheow, Joyce Ng, and Lune Loh spoke to the SGN about how Singapore has been at the focal point of the American right's agenda in the Asia-Pacific region.

Operation High Tide

Singapore has a long history of silencing political dissent. Carissa Cheow has reported on how her government has conducted multiple political purges since the 1960s that crippled progressive activism. In the 1980s, Operation Spectrum was a McCarthy-style plot in which the government arrested and tortured progressive social workers, college students, and Catholic organizers.

Cheow pointed out that by repeatedly perpetrating violence against progressive activists and liberal Christian organizations, the Singapore government has been paving the way for right-wing Christian groups and their ideology to spread unopposed. Starting in the 2010s, the American right-wing think tank Witherspoon Institute has been accused by Singaporean activists of colluding with government officials, informally coined Operation High Tide.

As an example, Cheow brought up that a prominent conservative influencer and civil servant, Carol Loi, has been implicated through her affiliation with an offshoot of the Witherspoon Institute called Canavox, a US-based organization with the sole purpose of opposing same-sex marriage. Its website states unequivocally that "marriage is a comprehensive, permanent, and exclusive union between one man and one woman." Framing itself as a "cheerful" marriage movement, the group spreads "traditional" marriage values around the world by hosting reading groups, in which they disseminate materials justifying institutional homophobia.

In January 2022, Loi was listed on the Canavox website as the leader of the Singapore reading group. Cheow said Loi's affiliation with Canavox tracks with her overall political stances, as "she has been framing herself as a parents' rights advocate."

Loi successfully campaigned to have an 18+ discussion about the differences between sex and gender shut down at the Singapore Science Centre last June. Objecting to its premise, she commented under the center's Facebook post that "it is not representative of good science... hopefully this topic can still be discussed in a more objective and truly scientific way moving forward. Our children deserve to know the truth."

Cheow also highlighted how Loi's vocal opposition to LGBTQIA+ education follows Singapore's overall trend, as waves of angry calls from concerned parents have shut down even the smallest reforms proposed by cabinet ministers.

Smart Nation 2.0

Public hostility toward LGBTQIA+ people has troubling implications in the realms of digital technology and government surveillance. Joyce Ng is a tech journalist who has been sounding the alarm on how right-wing Singaporeans have influenced tech policy.

To promote digital literacy and security, Singapore's Ministry of Digital Development and Information launched Smart Nation 2.0 last October. Within the plan's policy documents, Ng found recommendations by the government to attend Focus on the Family—run webinars on how to set internet boundaries for primary school children.

"'Age-appropriate content restrictions' is a term often used to justify restrictions on Queer-affirming content," Ng said.

With the total lack of LGBTQIA+-friendly education in schools, she fears that groups like Focus on the Family are promoting digital practices that would completely close off access to online communities and resources for the next generation of Queer Singaporean youth.

Recent reforms around telehealth and virtual medicine have also created hardships. The lack of legal recognition of Transgender people's right to exist has created conditions that lead them to seek services from medical providers who may not be considered completely aboveboard.

#Justice4Harvey

Ng, Cheow, and Lune Loh all reported on how Transgender people have struggled to find doctors to prescribe hormone replacement therapy after multiple services were shut down by the Singapore Ministry of Health. This lack of institutional medical legitimacy for Singaporean Trans people has been a major contributor to the horrific experiences of a Transgender woman who has been continuously held and abused in a men's prison for multiple years.

Vickreman "Harvey" Chettiar is an Intersex Transgender woman who has been subjected to multiple injustices at the hands of the Singapore justice system. A survivor of sexual assault at the Institute of Mental Health, she was arrested in May 2023 on charges of allegedly threatening the Singapore president in an Instagram post.

While in prison, Harvey has been left in isolation, forced to undergo full-body strip searches, and detransitioned against her will by being given testosterone shots by prison staff.

Loh noted how prison guards have administered Harvey drugs during interrogations to extract a confession, which is now being used to incriminate her in court. To add onto the harrowingly transphobic environment Harvey faces in prison, Cheow reported that one prison officer told Harvey, "You can either be a man in prison or a man outside prison, but you will be a man until the end of your case."

In a solo protest to bring attention to the horrendous conditions Harvey has endured, Loh stood outside of the attorney general's chambers and the state courts on March 30, 2024. She was arrested, as it is illegal to hold any public protest in Singapore without a permit, which is nearly impossible to obtain.

Loh issued a press release about why she decided to protest, listing in detail the many reasons why forcing Transgender women into male prisons is psychologically and physically torturous, along with specific instances of rape perpetrated by prison guards against Harvey. Loh said she was willing to put her own safety on the line to highlight the injustices Transgender women face in prison all over the world.

Harvey's story may not be directly tied the influence of US right-wing groups, but when the recognition of Queer and Trans experience is completely erased in all avenues of life, that environment is naturally going to breed violence against those who deviate from it. That is ultimately what these organizations want to institute in the US and all over the world.

These anti-LGBTQIA+ movements and legislative efforts are on the rise: From Peru declaring Transgender identity a mental disorder to Uganda passing "Kill the Gays" laws, the thread that sadly ties many of these stories together is the support of US right-wing evangelical groups. Now, more than ever, is the time to organize and foster solidarity across the world for the rights of LGBTQIA+ people.