Singapore and Hong Kong Gay Pride Pink Dots

[fountainhall]

The homophobic Singapore government will not permit Gay Pride Marches. So a few years ago some in the LGBT community came up with the brilliant idea of gathering gays and their friends in a park to form a Pink Dot which lights up the night sky. Last year 21,000 attended. This year the 2014 event takes place on June 28. But please note the government only permits Singapore residents in to the Park that night!

http://i1125.photobucket.com/albums/l597/fountainhall/Singapore_Pink_Dot.jpg (http://s1125.photobucket.com/user/fountainhall/media/Singapore_Pink_Dot.jpg.html)

Numbers attending Hong KongтАЩs recent annual Gay Pride Parades have been pretty pathetic тАУ rarely more than 2,000. So this year the organisers took up SingaporeтАЩs idea and started a Pink Dot Festival. This was far more successful with over 12,000 attending two days ago. By all accounts it seems to have been a fun event.

[youtube:2j6ybehv]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rC_uSlrPzjo[/youtube:2j6ybehv]

[lego]

Thanks for sharing that, fountainhall, I hadn't heard about that Pink Dot thing and I think it's a very nice idea (sad that it's necessary though, obviously).

[fountainhall]

This Sunday Singapore holds its 2014 Pink Dot gathering in one of the cityтАЩs parks. More than last yearтАЩs 21,000 are expected to turn out. Since the event now virtually fills the park, the Pink Dot organisers have twice requested permission from the government to shift the rally to a larger space at Marina Bay. Both applications have been turned down on the grounds that the proposed venue is тАЬnot suitableтАЭ.

Especially welcome, though, is the support the event now receives from the business community. Google, BP, Barclays. J P Morgan and Goldman Sachs are already on board. Goldman Sachs even held a special dinner last month in its business district offices. Billed as an LGBT recruiting dinner, it drew rebukes from the government. The Minister for Social and Family Development (can you get more тАШSingaporeтАЩ than that?) suggested that foreign companies should тАЬrespect local culture and context (and) not venture into public advocacy for causes that sow discord among Singaporeans.тАЭ No doubt the Minister was trying to avoid a confrontation with some extreme right religious groups who are making their presence felt.

Through tax and other incentives, for decades Singapore has been wooing foreign companies to make the city their Asian headquarters. This is especially true of financial firms in which they are in strong competition with Hong Kong. Yet, I suspect balancing its traditionally homophobic stance with the more inclusive policies now adopted by many international corporations is going to give the government headaches for quite some time.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-27584565
http://pinkdot.sg/about-pink-dot/