But They are Like You and Me

Gay Civil Servants and Citizenship in a Cosmopolitanizing Singapore

Bibliographic Data

ID2280640
AuthorsChris K K Tan (0000-0002-4005-9846)
Year2009
Volume21
Issue1
Pages133-154
Publication date2009-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCity & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0893-0465 • E-ISSN: 1548-744X
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1548-744x.2009.01018.x
OpenAlexW2085346851
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited30

In July 2003, Singapore's then-Prime Minister triggered public outrage by declaring that the state would now employ openly gay Singaporeans as civil servants. Besides questioning how such a seemingly inconsequential statement could generate such controversy, I also interrogate why the state had reversed its previously homophobic stance. I argue that, as a city-state with aspirations to become a global city, Singapore attempted to market the "difference" of its sexual minorities to appear cosmopolitan and attractive to the "creative class" of professional labor. By contradicting the sexual exclusivity inherent in normative notions of citizenship, however, this cosmopolitanizing drive triggered the moral outrage. Furthermore, I assert that despite its apparent message of tolerance, the state's declaration remained an empty marketing ploy. While it has enabled homosexual Singaporeans to assess their status as citizens, the state has neither legalized it nor struck down existing anti-sodomy legislation that fundamentally contradicts it. By exposing the declaration as only an exploitative façade that discursively conscripted gay and lesbian Singaporeans into cosmopolitanizing the country for the state, I highlight the limits of discourses of difference in Singapore

LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy · Socioeconomic Development in Asia

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