KATHY LOW, KOH YA WEN and ZENDEN TAN took part in Pink Dot 14, asking participants their thoughts on the return of Pink Dot to Hong Lim Park.
Participants at Pink Dot 14 holding up their pink placards.
Photo by Tay Hui Zhi, Elena
With the theme “The Change We Want To See”, quotes like “Equal housing and marriage rights” was just one of the many placards filled with people’s thoughts and comments on the changes they want to see in Singapore. Besides the hilarious sea of comments on the pink placards seen at Pink Dot this year, roars of screams and cheer could be heard as local stars slayed the stage. Pink Dot had well and truly returned.
Pink Dot SG is a non-profit movement, holding events annually since 2009 promoting a safe space for all LGBTQ+ Singaporeans as well as allies. However, the event was moved online due to the pandemic.
The online events for both Pink Dot 12 and 13, had consisted of many pre-recorded interviews, speeches as well as performances.
“Watching the live stream and all that was really nice, but I wish I could see them perform in front of my face,” saysys Ms Valentina, 16, a secondary school student. She was quite disheartened when COVID-19 struck because she was looking forward to attending a physical Pink Dot event.
The online event encouraged Singaporeans all across the country to light their rooms up with pink lights and post it on social media. This paired together with an online map called LoveLivesHere, where people could pin messages of support to any location on the Singapore map.
Ms Valentina says that even though the event was online, she could still feel the love and support of the community.
“I was actually shocked, knowing there’s quite a lot of people in my area who are supportive,” says Valentina.
Mr Ray, 16, who is also a secondary school student says that he would rather have the event physically, to actually “hear people, laughing and cheering” and “experience it in the moment”.
This year, Pink Dot returned to Hong Lim Park with a nod back to their roots. Pink Dot 14 would be a “day dot” instead of the usual night event.
The gates of Pink Dot 14 opened at 3 pm but crowds had already gathered with their picnic mats an hour before. Not long after, a long snaking line around the perimeter of Hong Lim Park formed. Hyped up volunteers were met with cheers and anticipation from the crowd, exuding a warmth that matches Singapore’s heat.
This was the first time Pink Dot also introduced postcards as part of the event, allowing for Pink Dot’s impact to be brought out of this one-day event, as the postcards can be mailed to our Minister’s of Parliament (MPs).
Following that were rows of community tents featuring projects, Non-governmental organisations, and various other organisations that came in support of Pink Dot. One of which is, tFreedom. tFreedom is community from the residential college, Tembusu, in the National University of Singapore. Ms Abirami, a 19 year-old student from NUS at the tFreedom booth explained that their booth aims to raise awareness and share more about tFreedom, which encourages a safe space to discuss and introduce topics on sexuality, gender and sex.
Participants at Pink Dot 14 having some food before the event begun.
Photo by Tay Hui Zhi, Elena
Many took the opportunity to have a picnic at the park with their own packed food, catching glimpses of Benjamin Kheng, Jeslene Chia, and a number of MPs, who were some of the famous faces spotted amongst the crowd. Before long, the performers took the stage.
For the next two hours, there wasn’t a moment where the crowd wasn’t singing, dancing, or cheering for their favourite artists. From soothing beats provided by Lew Loh to electrifying performances from Preetipls, Limited Edition, and Singapore Drag Royalty, along with many other performers.
“This time the crowd was screaming and I was able to see their faces, it definitely affects the performance in a positive way”. Says Ms Jean Goh, 32, performer at Pink Dot 14, better known as Jean Seizure.
Speeches from Remy Choo, Keeshan Menon, Kokila Annamalai, and Zuby Eusofe soon followed which riled up the crowd to stand together and speak out for what they believed in. Some were also moved to tears by the inspiring messages conveyed by the speakers.
At the end of the event, Ms Pamela Oei guided the audience to form the pink dot 14 formation. the sea of pink placards lit up Hong Lim Park while volunteers raised white umbrellas to spell "Majulah".
With Jean Seizure singing the lyrics of ‘Fight Song’ by Rachal Platten, the formation continued as Ms Oei directed us to move about our placards in different directions.
“I feel like something's a little different in the air, could be that it's been two years and it's many people's first Pink Dot and the speeches got many people emotional as well. With the shift in attitude towards [Section 377A of the Penal Code], I do believe that there's a little more hope involved in this year's Pink Dot as compared to the previous ones,” says Ms Jean Goh, better known as Jean Seizure, on this year’s event.
Formation of the Pink Dot.
Photo by Zenden Tan Chi Siang
Pink Dot 14, like all the Pink Dots that came before it, was a celebration of the vibrant and strong LGBTQ+ community here in Singapore. It was a protest, and for many it represented a fight for equality, and a fight against injustice. As the number of participants soar year on year, the return of Pink Dot to Hong Lim Park paints a bright picture of the future, a future more inclusive, a future without 377A.
“It was 2017, that was the year we had more people than [we ever had], the numbers exploded.” Says Mr Jun, “I told my friends, you know, ‘there still isn't enough people coming.’ And then they asked me 'when is enough?' And the answer is, it's never gonna be enough.”
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