Maybe it's just the people I hang with, but it seems that some of Singapore's richest choose to exile their gay kids in what they consider homosexual wasteland.
Obviously I can't name names else it would defeat the whole purpose of parents dumping their kids here. Which of course, is TO SAVE FACE. and I wonder, if their parents were so bloody rich, why didn't they send them further afield? Like New York, or even better, gay capital of the world San Fran? Or London to literally blend into the underground?
Or even to more secluded areas. (like Melbourne as opposed to Perth, but further AWAY and less populated with nosy Singaporeans like say Arizona and Utah and Maine instead of California, LA and assorted Ivy League unis, or even sheeesh French Canada! I mean, all that third language studying has to go to good use sometime somewhere!)
I have several answers to that most of them cynical, and none of them really proven, so I'll just shrug it off I guess.
Anyway, this came to my attention when I met another one of those "kids in exile" a few days ago. He basically did university there, then a hairdressing course, and now he's faffing. He's so effeminate there's no way he could pass for straight, and so daddy is simply paying to keep him there.
When I first arrived into boarding, 4 Singaporean girls I met (and there were only 8 of us) were there to "correct their gayness". I don't know what the thinking was, but the parents thought that chucking their gay daughters into an all-girls' boarding school would "cure" them of their gayness.
Of course it just turned out to be an all-out sex-fest for them, especially since Hong Kongers seem to have the same mentality as Singaporeans in regards to "curing" wayward sexual orientations. and then of course, there were some those crazy international kids, who were and I believe, still are the open bisexuals.
Last I chatted, only one of the Singaporeans had turned straight, the rest were still lesbian. It's a bit difficult when you KNOW you're lesbian from the age of 11.
Their parents are still keeping them here so that they're literally out of sight. It helps when junior is getting prime marks so they can boast about the marks without having to drag out the kid him or herself to parade around, with the offchance that someone might notice a P-flag aura seeping out of them, or worse, notice it or hear it "through the grapevine" so while they're happily chattering about Dean's Lists everyone is thinking and smirking something totally different.
There are plus points in this gay Disneyland. If you're bold enough, you can openly walk the streets holding hands and kissing and no one will really bat an eyelid. You can go rampant gay clubbing. and of course, there are the material benefits for some.
You're allowed to buy almost anything you want. Anything. It's almost like these kids are armed with black amexes of the fms (Father-Mother-Scholarship) kind. The Nissan Zs, the BMW 7 series, the Mercedes Cs (because E is too bulky and S is to old), the international weekend shopping sprees (By this I'm talking Paris, HongKong and Shanghai, not New Zealand, Fiji and Indonesia).
For others, punishment continues for your "state". Money is cut off, given the bare minumum so that you find previously tai-tai-acting kids who wouldn't know a broom if it hit them in the face suddenly work the graveyard shift in 7-elevens where they come home with tales of getting held up with a gun.
and best of all, you can literally meet so many more PLUs. I don't know the details ( I never asked) but I'm pretty sure the Singapore gay community is so closely knit everyone knows everyone else anyway, and if you're squashed into Sydney/Melbourne then the 2 degrees of seperation compress to 1.5. I know this because I'm forever listening to both gay and lesbian friends complaining about how small and gossipy the community is, and how the information spreads across the continent in one day max.
It doesn't change the fact that this is a gilded cage though, especially when you realise how homesick some of them are. When you realise that they're only allowed back to Singapore for short amounts of time because their parents want to hide the dirty secret, and many of them who used to back specifically for Nation don't even have that to look forward to anymore.
When you realise that pressure within the family is killing them inside, or the semi-denial of their parents who keep hoping for that precious grandson to carry on the family name, or even the wrath they have to endure, and the lengths they have to go to keep their sexuality secret, even more so than most other gays in Singapore because of who their parents are.
And you realise that Australia laid-bare can be a dumping ground for the rich to deposit their children whose sexual orientations don't fit in with the family agenda.
Obviously I can't name names else it would defeat the whole purpose of parents dumping their kids here. Which of course, is TO SAVE FACE. and I wonder, if their parents were so bloody rich, why didn't they send them further afield? Like New York, or even better, gay capital of the world San Fran? Or London to literally blend into the underground?
Or even to more secluded areas. (like Melbourne as opposed to Perth, but further AWAY and less populated with nosy Singaporeans like say Arizona and Utah and Maine instead of California, LA and assorted Ivy League unis, or even sheeesh French Canada! I mean, all that third language studying has to go to good use sometime somewhere!)
I have several answers to that most of them cynical, and none of them really proven, so I'll just shrug it off I guess.
Anyway, this came to my attention when I met another one of those "kids in exile" a few days ago. He basically did university there, then a hairdressing course, and now he's faffing. He's so effeminate there's no way he could pass for straight, and so daddy is simply paying to keep him there.
When I first arrived into boarding, 4 Singaporean girls I met (and there were only 8 of us) were there to "correct their gayness". I don't know what the thinking was, but the parents thought that chucking their gay daughters into an all-girls' boarding school would "cure" them of their gayness.
Of course it just turned out to be an all-out sex-fest for them, especially since Hong Kongers seem to have the same mentality as Singaporeans in regards to "curing" wayward sexual orientations. and then of course, there were some those crazy international kids, who were and I believe, still are the open bisexuals.
Last I chatted, only one of the Singaporeans had turned straight, the rest were still lesbian. It's a bit difficult when you KNOW you're lesbian from the age of 11.
Their parents are still keeping them here so that they're literally out of sight. It helps when junior is getting prime marks so they can boast about the marks without having to drag out the kid him or herself to parade around, with the offchance that someone might notice a P-flag aura seeping out of them, or worse, notice it or hear it "through the grapevine" so while they're happily chattering about Dean's Lists everyone is thinking and smirking something totally different.
There are plus points in this gay Disneyland. If you're bold enough, you can openly walk the streets holding hands and kissing and no one will really bat an eyelid. You can go rampant gay clubbing. and of course, there are the material benefits for some.
You're allowed to buy almost anything you want. Anything. It's almost like these kids are armed with black amexes of the fms (Father-Mother-Scholarship) kind. The Nissan Zs, the BMW 7 series, the Mercedes Cs (because E is too bulky and S is to old), the international weekend shopping sprees (By this I'm talking Paris, HongKong and Shanghai, not New Zealand, Fiji and Indonesia).
For others, punishment continues for your "state". Money is cut off, given the bare minumum so that you find previously tai-tai-acting kids who wouldn't know a broom if it hit them in the face suddenly work the graveyard shift in 7-elevens where they come home with tales of getting held up with a gun.
and best of all, you can literally meet so many more PLUs. I don't know the details ( I never asked) but I'm pretty sure the Singapore gay community is so closely knit everyone knows everyone else anyway, and if you're squashed into Sydney/Melbourne then the 2 degrees of seperation compress to 1.5. I know this because I'm forever listening to both gay and lesbian friends complaining about how small and gossipy the community is, and how the information spreads across the continent in one day max.
It doesn't change the fact that this is a gilded cage though, especially when you realise how homesick some of them are. When you realise that they're only allowed back to Singapore for short amounts of time because their parents want to hide the dirty secret, and many of them who used to back specifically for Nation don't even have that to look forward to anymore.
When you realise that pressure within the family is killing them inside, or the semi-denial of their parents who keep hoping for that precious grandson to carry on the family name, or even the wrath they have to endure, and the lengths they have to go to keep their sexuality secret, even more so than most other gays in Singapore because of who their parents are.
And you realise that Australia laid-bare can be a dumping ground for the rich to deposit their children whose sexual orientations don't fit in with the family agenda.
4 comments:
it really saddens me to think (and know) that some people view homosexuality as a disease. see you next week babe. will be thinking about you.
hey myst, didn't know u moved here. anyway, are u sure that the gay offsprings of well-heeled s'porean girls are dumped oz? i thot oz is terribly laidback and a not very happening place for gay pple whom i perceive as darn cool and trendy. :)
Camoranesi here btw.
RYC: Um, yeah, it closed down about a year ago to make way for the new SMU campus and some LTA works.
But the new place definately looks better.
Loads better.
Cheers, Godbless.
western subs sydney-rough-cut-hung-tanned. call me. Mick @ 0438226460
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