Pink Dot

THIS IS BEAUTIFUL: Help Give Singapore ‘A More Inclusive Future’

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The same way a new push in California aims to show gay families are like any other family, there’s an effort underway in Singapore to show you that everyone, no matter how conservative or traditional or backwoods, knows someone who is gay (or transgender). It’s sort of a big deal because, while here in the U.S. we’re fighting for the right to get married, Singapore’s gays are fighting for the right just to be intimate with one another.

Sex between two men there is a crime and carries up to a two-year jail sentence.

Which is why on Saturday, gay rights activists and everyday folks are getting together in Hom Lim Park — a regular host to political rallies — wearing pink and raising awareness for Pink Dot, an event to raise awareness about the country’s discriminatory laws. “The language and intent is couched in terminology that will make it an NOT-ILLEGAL event,” a reader visiting Singapore tells Queerty. Indeed, organizers say the event “is not a protest nor a parade. This is just a simple call for open-minded Singaporeans to come together to form a human pink dot, of which aerial photographs will be taken. … More importantly, Pink Dot stands for a Singapore in which all Singaporeans, regardless of their sexual orientation, are free to love and be love.”

Why choose pink? Because it’s what happens when you blend red and white, Singapore’s national colors.

(Pink Dot takes place May 16, followed the next day with International Day Against Homophobia.)