Singapore’s media police have been all about the queer crackdown.
Cable company StarHub found itself fined earlier this month after airing a music video featuring a lesbian kiss. The nation-state’s Media Authority wagged its finger at StarHub, saying the showing was “in breach of the TV advertising guidelines, which disallows advertisements that condone homosexuality.”
Now another channel has been fined $11,000 for broadcasting an episode of fix-it-up show, “Find and Design,” which included a gay couple looking to refashion a game room into a nursery for their freshly adopted baby.
Again, officials claim the offending network illegally promoted gay ways.
CitizenGeek
Wow, that’s crazy!
Shirokuma66
I can’t understand it. When will Singaporeans shake loose the shackles of their British past and repeal these antiquated laws?! Politically they are represented by a primarily Chinese government of highly educated and well-traveled people. Why on earth do they insist on anti-gay stances like this over and over again?
kr
let me help you out, shirokuma66 – Singapore effectively did lost the shackles of British colonial past around the time the island-state gained independence in 1965. Right after gaining independence (or getting kicked out of the Malaysian Federation – depending on how one looks at it), the well-educated (and primarily ethnic Chinese) government moved into speed to develop the nation’s economics, which we now know worked very well.
At the same time, most of the well-educated politicians and their well-connected offspring belong to the Christian faith (surprise! – this is due to both the Chinese politicians’ exposure to the Christian faith during their academic stay in UK/US and evangelistic Christians present in Singapore because of British rule and international trade).
Hence while the government maintains multicultural harmony by censoring ANY form of religious rant against other faiths, the truth of the matter is a large chunk of the current parliamentary heavyweights subscribes to socially conservative Christian views.
Therefore in instances where gay(friendly) events/media exposure occur, such heavyweights have been known to “make a phone call or two.”