The Singapore Queer Oral History Podcast

June Chua talks about her “marvellous” days growing up in Singapore, her loving family, her successful career in sex work and, eventually, how she managed to realise her full potential by establishing the much-beloved T Project, the first social service for the Singaporean transgender community. While most of us know her as a familiar face (with a distinctive accent) in the transgender community, she reminds us (rather feistily and on multiple occasions) that she is more than just the founder of the T Project. In this laugh-out-loud interview, she discusses her multiple awards for her work in various spaces, her frustration with stereotypes about transgender people, her thoughts on the evolution of trans issues over the years, and how she has managed to stay true to herself through it all.

Teri is a queer trans Singaporean boi. At the time of this interview, he is working in crypto. He discusses coming out to a queer school counsellor, interschool soccer team crushes, how his fashion sense changed alongside his gender expression, walking for New York Fashion Week, and thoughts on actively participating in capitalism.

Content warnings: mentions of homophobia, transphobia, violence, profanity

Important timestamps:

• 0:24 – Realising that he’s queer

• 2:07 – Coming out to his school career counsellor

• 5:39 – Leaving Singapore

• 8:24 – Exploring his identity in the US

• 12:09 – Becoming a queer model

• 19:33 – How his fashion has evolved alongside his identity

• 25:08 – Exploring gender identity and becoming more secure in his gender

• 29:02 – Thoughts on being in the US amidst queerphobic violence

• 32:16 – Not fully fitting into queer communities

• 35:49 – Thoughts on participating in capitalism as a queer business person

• 40:26 – Feeling like a part of, and yet isolated in the community

• 42:50 – Imagining a future in Singapore

• 48:11 – Feeling alienated from activism

• 52:39 – Surviving, and “moderate” politics

• 55:46 – Navigating the secondary school environment

• 1:02:18 – Playing soccer in school and clubs

• 1:08:21 – Christianity

• 1:10:30 – Family

• 1:14:40 – Self-description

L is a current student at the National University of Singapore’s Arts and Social Sciences Faculty. He speaks about his realisation of his own queerness, his experiences in the education system, the military and in university with regard to his identity, his participation in Pink Dot, his experience as an organiser of queer student groups, and about his personal life.

Key Terms: Student Activism, National Service, Pink Dot, Education, Coming Out.

Important timestamps:

· 03:00 – JC

· 04:36 – the lack of queer resources

· 09:27 – JC rule against cross-dressing

· 11:03 – realising sexuality in NS

· 19:45 – Pink Dot

· 29:30 – being queer in university

· 36:29 – SafeNUS

· 44:35 – being queer inclusive

· 53:43 – coming out

Drake is a 24-year-old cis gay man who isn’t particularly attractive or smart, but he is vaccinated. At the point of recording, he is in year two of a Bachelor’s degree in counselling and sometimes makes music under the name ‘soft universe’.

Content warnings: depression, rape, suicide attempt, bullying

Important timestamps:

● 5:59 – bullying in secondary school

● 9:13 – poly

● 12:46 – depression

● 15:52 – the ex (content warning: rape, suicide attempt)

● 23:55 – NS

● 31:43 – uni

● 34:35 – dating

● 39:37 – dating and body

● 46:26 – therapy

● 1:00:59 – the tea on school counsellors

● 1:06:40 – music

● 1:12:55 – twitter

● 1:17:27 – family

● 1:20:55 – coming out

● 1:24:24- trying

Andy Winter is a trans nonbinary Aries sun, Cancer moon, Sagittarius rising, with an Aries Venus, a Mercury in Taurus, and a Mars in Virgo. They are a poet, artist, Chaos and Violence incarnate, and hot but in a scary way. In this interview, they discuss online text-board communities, art, their politics of survival, language games, Drag Wars, school life, and how the entity known as Andy Winter was birthed.

Content warnings: bullying, institutional violence, profanity

Important timestamps:

• 00:24 – figuring out their queerness, in school and on online communities

• 08:57 – roleplaying, writing, finding art and language

• 17:40 – online fandoms

• 22:36 – chaotic, queered online spaces

• 33:25 – text-based spaces and the exploration of transness

• 43:45 – cosplay and drag

• 52:07 – art and survival

• 57:09 – language, visibility, and queerness

• 1:03:35 – the idea of community

• 1:09:42 – bullying, policing, and religion in primary school

• 1:17:08 – finding other queer people in secondary school

• 1:32:13 – junior college (as a sort of stayover, being in science stream)

• 1:38:57 – a supportive friend and parent at a drag show

• 1:45:30 – cishet men

• 1:48:20 – the violence of knowing someone

• 1:51:58 – university

• 2:01:43 – LGBTQIA groups in university

• 2:10:29 – privilege and alienation

• 2:18:32 – NS

• 2:35:13 – drag and Drag Wars

• 2:46:27 – drag and politics

• 2:50:53 – the evolution of Winter

• 2:55:32 – drag and ballroom culture

• 2:58:10 – art and trauma

• 3:05:11 – poetry

• 3:13:08 – other areas of art

• 3:19:40 – family

• 3:25:00 – politics of affinity, solidarity, and needing to extend beyond identity

• 3:32:57 – queer history, and theory

• 3:39:47 – self-description

Iliya is your typical gay boy/drag queen. He is a Theatre Gay turned drag queen and at the point of recording studies in Zoom University and sometime NUS. In this interview, he discusses the isolation of being queer in school, family, NS, community, drag culture in Singapore, and the difference between queer and gay spaces.

Content warnings: NA

Important timestamps:

• 0:35 – overview

• 22:30 – being the only gay person in Singapore

• 25:53 – the tea on gay hookups

• 33:04 – childhood trauma

• 35:39 – starting drag

• 41:59 – looking for gays in university

• 46:42 – gay vs queer spaces

G is a gay trans man. He likes nature, including bugs. In this interview, he discusses the experience of being a young trans man and his worries about the future.

Important timestamps:

• 0:54 – realising his gender identity

• 5:24 – queer community and social support

• 7:05 – fears about coming out

• 17:00 – the state of the queer and trans community in Singapore

GE is a bisexual man who used to be a conspiracy theorist and managed to pull himself out of the wacky world of young earth creationism with the power of love. At the point of recording, he is fresh out of NS and about to enter university. In this interview, he discusses his experiences growing up in conservative Christian environments, the echo chamber that a cell group environment created, and learning to become more open-minded despite that.

Content warnings: Christianity, homophobia, transphobia

Important timestamps:

• 3:44 – family

• 5:21 – church and cell group

• 7:40 – leaving the church

• 12:58 – the echo chamber

• 15:40 – New Zealand

• 17:41 – when people make Jesus their entire personality

• 20:12 – NS

• 22:42 – friends and JC

• 30:20 – final reflections

Lune is a poet, activist, transbian, philosopher, leftist, and a Capricorn, not necessarily in that order. She is a recovering gacha game fan who strongly believes in the superiority of sisterhood over romance but falls in love every girl who is nice to her. At the time of recording, she is burnt out and trying to get ready for her fourth year of university. In this interview she discusses her father, the switch from masculine subcultural spaces to queer spaces, philosophy, community, activism, and the state of student activism.

Content warnings: patriarchy, sexual violence, swearing, institutional violence, slurs

Important timestamps:

o 0:00 – childhood masculinity

o 25:45 – NUS High

o 31:55 – sci-fi

o 48:00 – daddy issues (part 3)

o 58:10 – queering

o 1:01:31 – history

o 1:03:49 – lesbianism

o 1:19:43 – getting her name

o 1:27:49 – the price of hyper visibility

o 1:43:14 – the duplex

o 1:48:14 – queer trauma

o 1:52:22 – assimilation and politics

o 2:01:14 – philosophy and politics

o 2:24:03 – difference and solidarity

o 2:28:18 – the process of coming out

o 2:33:55 – being visibly trans

o 2:39:26 – community

o 2:59:29 – the start of safeNUS

o 3:12:29 – leaving safeNUS

o 3:19:16 – the fall of the Utown LGBT groups and specifically tFreedom

o 3:29:49 – being condemned to choose

o 3:38:48 – self-reflection

o 3:56:39 – don’t call me progressive

o 4:10:15 – care

o 4:13:03 – difference

Lune is a poet, activist, transbian, philosopher, leftist, and a Capricorn, not necessarily in that order. She is a recovering gacha game fan who strongly believes in the superiority of sisterhood over romance but falls in love every girl who is nice to her. At the time of recording, she is burnt out and trying to get ready for her fourth year of university. In this interview she discusses family history, Japanese subcultural spaces, the Singapore literary scene, her friends in the writing collective \s@ber, and Tembusu.

Content warnings: patriarchy, sexual violence, swearing, institutional violence, slurs

Important timestamps:

o 0:11 – ontology

o 3:51 – first flashpoint

o 8:41 – daddy issues

o 23:05 – Luna

o 27:39 – K-pop and MTV

o 38:09 – NUS High

o 38:40 – daddy issues (part 2)

o 41:30 – family history

o 1:05:33 – back to NUS High

o 1:07:31 – Japanese subculture

o 1:09:49 – FMNL

o 1:17:22 – cosplay

o 1:21:30 – the masculine subcultural sphere and its various influences

o 1:27:42 – Introducing Postmodernism

o 1:30:54 – the divorce

o 1:34:10 – starting to look at singlit

o 1:43:00 – the Trans moment(s)TM

o 1:44:51 – jump ship

o 1:54:52 – SingPoWriMo

o 2:00:55 – Andy Winter

o 2:14:58 – a necessary act

o 2:17:21 – getting into the singlit scene

o 2:30:04 – the lack of care in FMNL

o 2:38:33 – \s@ber

o 2:46:33 – more tea on FMNL

o 2:53:38 – sexual harassment in NS

o 2:59:20 –\s@ber and its members

o 3:24:26 – Tembusu and tFreedom

o 3:47:00 – fuck Carol Loi

Van is a professional mess and a Leo who believes strongly in having 24/7 Girlfriend Loving Hours. At the point of recording, she is a year 3 student in NUS FASS, and fairly new at being queer because of compulsory heterosexuality.

Content warnings: institutional violence, parental disputes

The audio quality in this recording has been edited to reduce background noise, however some still remains as it was recorded in a public space.

Important timestamps:

• 0:15 – self description

• 1:01 – overview of the queer experience in Singapore

• 4:43 – how she discovered she was queer

• 6:52 – familial rejection

• 10:51 – the SOTA bubble

• 12:45 – NUS

• 16:45 – the systemic marginalisation of tfreedom

• 22:27 – the state of queer spaces in Singapore

• 27:17 – describing her community

• 29:32 – choosing to love

John is a cis Chinese male with enough self-awareness to take advantage of it but not enough self-control to hide his flaming homosexuality. At the point of recording, he has freshly graduated from NUS and has started his job search. In this interview, he discusses heteronormativity, family, sexuality education (and the lack thereof) in Singapore, finding safe spaces, and communities of choice.

Content warnings: homophobia, familial disputes, slurs

The audio quality in this recording has been edited to reduce background noise, however some still remains as it was recorded in a public space.

Important timestamps:

• 1:07 – the gay awakening

• 3:28 – realisation and anger

• 7:37 – accidentally outing himself to the parents

• 14:03 – the tea on MOE schools

• 16:22 – sexual health and exploring sexuality

• 20:47 – NS

• 24:07 – finding a safe space in university

• 28:53 – the decline of tfreedom

• 35:43 – how to adult, but you’re gay and can’t get a house or possibly a job

• 40:45 – community, solidarity, and conservatives

• 47:24 – burnout

• 51:46 – reflections on community

Carissa (or Cari, or Khalisah) is a self-described an-com, community organiser by necessity, and very queer. She is a trans lesbian hijabi who studied in NUS from 2017 and was going to start her final year when the interview was recorded. In this interview, she discusses trauma in her schooling life, being a trans lesbian in NS, coming out, finding community, the various interactions with different institutions as she tried organising to support her community, and her relationship with religion and conversion to Islam. 

Content warnings: suicidal ideation, discussion of death and suicide, discussion of sexual assault and bullying, institutional violence, profanity

The audio quality in this recording has been edited to reduce background noise, however some still remains as it was recorded in a public space.

Important timestamps:

• 00:26 – overview on denial

• 02:23 – early education

• 06:18 – sexual assault and aftermath

• 12:55 – the process of coming out

• 17:26 – JC

• 39:02 – how the perpetrators used the school’s institutions to get away with sexual violence

• 51:08 – being that kid that called out the principal

• 1:00:44 – inability to 5 senses and discussing 6th senses

• 1:07:04 – the weird sex education in school

• 1:11:11 – NS

• 1:35:41 – first time meeting another trans person, subsequent queering

• 1:43:33 – observations on cishet men

• 2:01:23 – coming out

• 2:02:33 – Khalisah

• 2:11:44 – the bus incident

• 2:24:22 – CAPT orientation camp

• 2:30:13 – coming out in year 1

• 3:02:33 – Youth Labour Movement

• 3:16:19 – dealing with the RF, bathroom issues

• 3:29:02 – the tea on NUSSU

• 3:40:21 – everything falling apart in 2019

• 3:43:55 – TransNUS vs NUS bureaucracy

• 3:58:01 – vibing with Islam

• 4:28:05 – the perfect timing of her life

• 4:33:33 – disability justice, queer time, Crip time, and learning to be nice to herself

• 4:50:11 – thoughts on community

• 5:07:23 – being possible