Patrick's gay Singapore 1965 - 1984

by Patrick J Lee

..... I would like to paint the landscape of gay culture in Singapore from 1965 to 1984 (ps. it was the year I quit homosexuality and therefore am not able to comment about it from 1984 to 1998).

In 1965, I was just 8 yrs and was already physically intimate with 4 of my male cousins who lived together with me and we shared the same room for the next 15 yrs). In school, I was already connected with other effeminate students in my year. We all had interest in guys, but were not biologically developed to experience full blown sex personally. So often we were the passive party performing oral/anal sex, most of us with our immediate family members or neighbourhood men. So our gay geographical landscape was very defined and limited. We thought we were the only weird ones have sex with the same gender.

Then the dam burst in 1971. There was a supplement tabloid called, "The New Nation", it broke the code of silence and ran a whole feature on "Homosexuality in Singapore". It was a 'par excellence' feature (regretfully, I have lost the cutting of it through the years. Maybe somebody knows how to dig for such archive, please do so.) It was an excellent feature because it was straight forward factual reporting about what being gay and lesbian was all about, that they do exist in our society. It also named most of the popular cruising places. BUT WHAT WAS MOST REVOLUTIONARY FOR ME, WAS THAT IT STATED THAT THERE WAS 'COMMERCIAL HOMOSEXUAL SERVICES'. This blew my mind off, I did not know that you can fun with sex and still get paid for it. It further stated the amount that was normally charged for gay sexual services. From that day onwards, many of my gay friends and I, started charging money for those men who wanted to have sex with us. With the money we went shopping for outlandish clothings, visit Guardian Pharmacy to buy hair removal cream for our hairy legs, plus Coppertone Suntan Lotion, to give us a good dark complexion which the angmohs are crazy about. This was a time when many people which PM Goh said were using "Lam Soon" soap to bathe, and many struggled with school fees. Each month we collected about $200 , which was the starting salary for a Division 3, civil servant. For sleeping in 5-stars hotels (ie in 1970's only Hilton, Hyatt, Mandarin, Holiday Inn, Goodwood Park and Marco Polo),enjoying room-service and sometimes we were given expensive watches or pens, this was a glamourous lifestyle.

Although at that time, there was no exclusive gay bars, but 2 bars 'Treetop' at Holiday Inn and 'Pebble Bar' at the now demolished Hotel Singapura Forum, were frequented by gay people and was known amongst us as 'cruising ground' for angmohs and expatriates. Pebble Bar was notorious because it had a live band called Tania and the lead singer painted his face, in the style of David Bowie. Many of the gay patrons of the bar believed to be gay too and so were always packing in the place to support his performance.

Although there were no gay discos, yet at all the popular ones like My Place, Black Velvet, West End, El Morroco, The Library, Studio M and even the NCO Club at Beach Rd, permitted man-to-man dancing albeit only for fast number. Once or twice I [flouted] the rule and dance slow waltz; which they usually notice and caution me to behave.

At all the gay watering holes, there was seldom heard of any police raid or policemen dressed in plainclothes out to 'catch' the gay perverts. I can only guess the reason to being that [a certain cabinet minister] had a son who was notoriously gay and was highly visible because he a well known model. There were also two MPs whose nephews were gay and were my personal friends. There was a well known sex-changed model featured occassionly in Her World. By the way, in the 70's there was a Shaw chinese film titled 'Ai Nu' meaning 'love slave' which starred actress Lily Ho and Pei Ti as a lesbian couple in a period setting, and in the final scene when Lily Ho wanted to desert Pei Ti to go off with the male hero, she asked for a final kiss, whilst they were kissing Pei Ti has a poison pill in her mouth which she bit, thus it was a kiss of death. All these signs indicated that we lived in a tolerant society, but we should do part by refraining from explicit display of gay affection in public, and we should also refrain from wanting to turn the whole landscape of Singapore into a cruising ground. I wholeheartedly agree with SM Lee that, 'we are each free to lead our own lives so long as they don't impinge on other people.' My personal philosophy is that first, "I am an Asian, secondly, I am gay." So I will endeavour to live my gay life within the perimeter of my cultural landscape, I certainly do want to import/imitate the gay culture of San Francisco. (This is my personal opinion, you are free to choose your own)

By the way, "The New Nation" shortly after that publication was banned, but to me what was acheived through that publication was worth any price. I have learned from the study of churh history, that for a minority group (ps Jesus originally had 12 disciples) to gain acceptance and influence, members of the group must be willing to pay any price for what they believed. And in the history of the development many lives were literally sacrificed, but the more they were persecuted, the more they increase in numbers. A church theologian summed it up saying, "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church'. A well known army general said, "The price of freedom is never cheap". If we want to gain more visibility and acceptance, then we need some martyrs among us who will give their blood to paint a new landscape. A communist soldier lying in a pool of blood, said these words to his tearful girlfriend, "Do not be sad when you see my blood spilled out, but take comfort that my blood has make our nation's flag a darker shade of red." To this, I must applaud the courage of Paddy Chew to lend his face to the Aids cause in Singapore.

I have a lot to tell, but I must know when to stop, and here perhaps is a good place. I shall be glad to answer any question you may have about gay life in Singapore during the 1960's to 1980's.   
 

Footnotes

1. See also A proven ministry, which continues the story of Patrick's life, this time as a church pastor, turning his back on homosexuality

Addenda

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