Hello Melinda, everyone,
On Wed, May 25, 2016 at 1:37 AM, Melinda Shore <melinda.shore@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 5/24/16 9:26 AM, Yoav Nir wrote:
I do not doubt that it sucks to be a gay or bisexual male living in
Singapore. Spending a week there for work should be fine.
I think it's hard to understand a problem that you haven't
lived. One of the things that happens when you live under
conditions of legal (or not) discrimination is that you
learn to negotiate it, build private safe spaces, and so on.
You understand the constraints within which you need to
operate. Visitors are actually at a disadvantage in that
regard.
Nobody here has been able to answer questions about what
would happen if someone in Ted's family were to need to be
hospitalized while visiting Singapore, what would happen if
something happened involving the police (say, a mugging or
a traffic accident), and so on. The assurances we've gotten
haven't been reassuring at all, as they've tended to take
the form of hearsay. "I'm sure it would be fine" does not
actually answer any questions. "Those laws are not enforced"
does not address family legal relationships, and so on.
The questions ^^^^^ posed seems largely pragmatic IMO as a Singaporean.
Why don't IETF bring all these questions up to the Law Minister (https://www.facebook.com/k.shanmugam.page), or, I'm not sure, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (https://www.mfa.gov.sg/), or contact a Singaporean law firm?
Also, pardon me for not keeping up to track with the discussion, but based on the way the paragraph was crafted, are there people in this discussion who think that tourists who come to Singapore won't get the help they need (medical in case of accident, protection in case of mugging for example) if they happen to be LGBT, or such tourists will get bullied or physically attacked?
Melinda
John