Transgender people in Singapore
Encyclopedia
The history and subculture
surrounding Transgender people in Singapore is substantial. Not immediately apparent to Singapore's mainstream society is the fact that the gay
community sees itself as a totally separate entity from the transgender
communities (often also referred to as "transvestite and transsexual" communities). They are individual subcultures with many different priorities and concerns.
was implemented in 1967, whereby all 18-year-old males were required to train full-time for two or two-and-a-half years, depending on their educational attainment. Transgender
was listed as a condition in a Singapore Armed Forces
(SAF) 'Directory of Diseases' and recruits who outed themselves to the examining doctors at the Central Manpower Base (CMPB) at Depot Road had their 'deployability' denied in sensitive positions. They were classified as Category 302 personnel, downgraded to a Physical Employment Status of C or E and assigned only non-combat roles at military bases.
Transgender individuals who have undergone sex reassignment surgery (SRS) are able to skip National Service entirely. However due to the difficulty of transitioning early, only a very small percentage of transsexuals in Singapore are actually able to obtain SRS before having to enter National Service.
In rare cases, it's possible for a transgendered people to be exempted from National Service despite not undergoing sex reassignment surgery. However this is mostly up to the medical-officer in charge and varies case by case. In general, transsexuals that look like normal females have a much higher chance of being exempted.
were authorised to perform Sex reassignment surgery male-to-female
(SRS) at Kandang Kerbau Hospital. The first such operation in Asia took place in Singapore in July 1971. However, before patients could go under the knife, they first had to subject themselves to an exhaustive battery of tests and be given a clean psychological bill of health by chief academic psychiatrist
Prof. Tsoi Wing Foo.
was also offered at Kandang Kerbau Hospital and at Alexandra Hospital
, performed by gynecologists such as Dr. Ilancheran. A Gender Identity Clinic (GIC) and Gender Reassignment Surgery Clinic were set up at the National University Hospital
two decades later. It was headed by Prof. S Shan Ratnam
until his retirement in 1995, after which leadership passed to his nephew, Dr. Anandakumar. In fact, for 30 years, Singapore was one of the world leaders in SRS, performing more than 500 such operations. This gave a new lease on life to the many transgender individuals whose bodies did not match their gender identity. As one consequence of this, Bugis Street and Johore Road started to become populated with a range of transgender people from transvestites to iatrogenic intersex
individuals to fully transformed women.
In the 1970s, a well-known transsexual model was occasionally featured in Her World
magazine.
and the Women's Charter amended to read:
The minister moving the bill argued that since 1973, the government's intention was for people who had changed gender/sex to live a life according to their new gender, including the right to marry. Through an oversight, the law relating to marriage had not been re-aligned with the official policy to recognise sex reassignment surgery. Now that the courts had illuminated this inconsistency after a landmark case in which a woman sought and won the annulment of her marriage to a trans man
(Lim Ying v Hiok Kian Ming Eric), it was necessary to amend the Women's Charter to ensure that the original intent was not undermined. Transgender people were officially granted their wish on 24 January 1996 via an announcement by MP
Abdullah Tarmugi
without much public fanfare or opposition.
quietly closed in 2001. The official explanation was that the gynecologist in charge had left for private practice, and without him, the clinic did not have the skills to perform SRS. However, as early as 1987, the Ministry of Health had been directing hospitals to stop doing such operations on foreigners. It also discouraged them for Singaporeans, saying 'the increased danger of AIDS
with such patients poses unnecessary risk to hospital staff'.
This dismayed transgender people seeking to have their operations performed locally. The online edition of the now-defunct newspaper Project Eyeball carried out a survey in June 2001 asking, "Should sex-change
operations be resumed in Singapore?" 39% of respondents said, "Yes, they are people with valid medical needs, like infertile couples" and 35% said, "Why not? It is legal here, as are transsexual marriages". The results showed that Singaporeans were generally quite supportive.
The transgender community petitioned for the GIC to be reopened and were successful, with the clinic discreetly resuming it services in 2003, helmed by Dr. Ilancheran. However, owing to the discrimination against transgender people in Singapore even within some segments of the medical community, the high financial outlay involved and the necessity for psychological clearance, many preferred to have their operations performed sans the hassles in Bangkok
, which had by then become the première centre for SRS.
The latter would tease, cajole and sit on visitors' laps or pose for photographs for a fee. The amount of revenue that they raked in was considerable, providing a shot in the arm for the tourism industry. Veterans recall that the notorious drinking section began at Victoria Street
, and proceeded west to Queen Street
. Halfway between Victoria and Queen Streets, there was an intersecting lane parallel to the main roads, also lined with al fresco
bars. There was a well-patronised public toilet with a flat roof of which there are archival photos, complete with jubilant rooftop trans women. The earliest published description of Bugis Street found by Yawning Bread as a place of great gender diversity was in the book "Eastern Windows" by Ommaney, F.D. (1960. London:Longmans. pp. 39–45). Ommaney did not date specifically his description of the street, but his book made clear that he was in Singapore from 1955 to 1960.
In the mid-1980s, Bugis Street underwent major urban redevelopment into a retail complex of modern shopping malls, restaurants and nightspots mixed with regulated back-alley roadside vendors. Underground digging to construct the Bugis MRT station
prior to that also caused the upheaval and termination of the nightly transgender sex bazaar culture, marking the end of a colourful and unique era in Singapore's history. Tourist and local lamentation of the loss sparked attempts by the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board (STPB) to attempt to recreate some of the old sleazy splendour by staging contrived "Ah Qua shows" on wooden platforms, but these artificial performances failed to pull in the crowds. They were abandoned after a short time.
Bugis Street was immortalised in an English-language film of the same name, made, ironically, by a Hong Kong
film company which did employ some local talent in its production.
and Victoria Street
, and bisected by Ophir Road
, Johore Road was the less well-known cousin of its glamorous counterpart, Bugis Street
, just a stone's throw away. It was the seedy haunt of transgender prostitutes who solicited sex from locals, away from the glare of Western tourists. No photographs or media attention were focused on this street of ill-repute; only a no-frills approach to an economic exchange.
It was one of the few roads to be completely erased from the map of Singapore after a fire in the late 90s, to be replaced by an unnamed park next to the Bugis MRT station and the Victoria Street Wholesale Centre.
cabaret
nightclub
and thought by many also to be Singapore's only real national institution in the same uninhibited spirit as the original Bugis Street
. It is the namesake of John Lee Hooker
's legendary blues
club in San Francisco, shooting to international fame when the postmodernist magazine Wallpaper
called it "our top pick for a good night out in all of Asia!"
Originally established by owner Alan Koh in 1993 at 4 New Bugis Street in Bugis Village, it later relocated on 2 April 2000 to the second floor of the old 2-storey Chui Eng Free School schoolhouse at 130-132 Amoy Street, Far East Square (10 min walk from the Raffles Place MRT Station
). The new venue, which was reputed to have the best Singapore Sling
in town, had a restaurant downstairs for informal and outdoor dining.
Its overwhelming attraction were the risqué comedy routines by local drag
superstar Kumar
who took no-holds-barred digs at topics close to the hearts of Singaporeans. He was aided by his coterie of flamboyant, dazzlingly costumed, cross-dressing backups, nubile toyboys and other straight stand-up comedian/comedienne friends.
The first performance debuted on 18 August 2000. There were 2 shows each night and outrageous wisecracks, in raw Singlish
which made the banter difficult for tourists to understand, were interspersed with DJs playing the latest chart tunes. Members of the audience sitting next to the stage ran the highest risk of being drawn into the performance. It was patronised by a largely heterosexual audience who danced wildly during the intervals, but Tuesday nights were gay
with access granted to password holders only.
It closed after 12 years on 15 January 2005, reportedly to enable its artists to move on to fresh creative pursuits. However, many thought other reasons were that the shows were getting stale, the drag queen
s were getting old (Kumar
was 36) with no fresh blood to carry the torch and the existing ones not having what it took, and the club's poor location. It spawned a spoof
version called the Bang Bang Room at Changi Village
which held late night performances every weekend.
or Little India
area for decades, it attracted many of the transgender street-walkers from nearby Johore Road after the latter was erased from the map by a fire in the late 1990s.
Unlike their genotypically female government-regulated counterparts who are on display, usually seated on armchairs or sofas in well-lit rooms, reminiscent of a low-class back-lane version of Amsterdam
, the trans women of Desker Road, in contrast, cruise while standing or strolling. This is done to render their activities, which are considered illegal, less vulnerable to vice squad
raids. The seedy atmosphere of the whole vicinity has largely disappeared due to massive redevelopment around Mustafa Centre
.
Changi Village has been popular with trans women since the early 1990s and the straight men who go there to ogle at them, chat them up or use their services.
Woodlands Town Garden is a "heartland" park smack in the middle of a Housing Development Board satellite town which has recently gained notoriety for the activities of transvestites, some of whom reportedly rather aggressively solicit paid sex from casual passers-by.
, it is Singapore's second drag queen
cabaret
nightclub, a joint venture between Kumar, and partner Gwen Koh, who also owns the 3 Monkeys Restaurant in Orchard Towers. Together, they spent $50,000 to open the venue in July 2005, 6 months after the closure of Boom Boom Room.
Aiming for the high-end market, Gold Dust boasts professional dancers with flamboyant mardi gras
-type costumes, and women dancing alongside drag performers. Kumar's trademark provocative jokes are still the main focus, but now framed in a classier and more streamlined show. Kumar aims to capture the cozy feel and stylish look of New York
-style theatre bars. Thus, the 3000 sq ft (278.7 m²) club has no dance floor and all the chairs and tables face the stage. It can hold 180 people, and has the feel of a 1970s glam disco
, updated for the new generation. Instead of young National Servicemen and students, who formed a significant part of the Boom Boom Room
clientéle, Gold Dust intends to target a slightly more upper-crust crowd.
The main aim of the theatre bar is to showcase talent. In addition to the cabaret dances and stand-up comedy staples, it is considering expanding the shows to include mime
, monologues, plays and singing. Partner Kumar decided to open the venture because he needed a steady income stream, as well as a home base for his stand-up performances. Although the bar is located in the back block of Orchard Towers where Harry's Bar and Jason's supermarket reside, some felt that the idea of a bar next to the infamous '4 floors of whores' may not appeal to some patrons. However, Kumar felt that Orchard Towers was always known to be a controversial place, and since he was also a controversial performer who pushed the boundaries, it made sense for the bar to be based there.'
For the first time, Kumar's show incorporates two female professional dancers, Samantha Kan and Aslinda . There were only male dancers at the Boom Boom Room
. He always felt that the latter was lacking something and now he realised that it was girls.
Chinatown Caberat is a drag queen cabaret opened in 2006 by entrepreneur Max Lim at Ann Siang Hill.
people, as they are much less visible.
Subculture
In sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a group of people with a culture which differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong.- Definition :...
surrounding Transgender people in Singapore is substantial. Not immediately apparent to Singapore's mainstream society is the fact that the gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
community sees itself as a totally separate entity from the transgender
Transgender
Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....
communities (often also referred to as "transvestite and transsexual" communities). They are individual subcultures with many different priorities and concerns.
National service
National serviceNational service
National service is a common name for mandatory government service programmes . The term became common British usage during and for some years following the Second World War. Many young people spent one or more years in such programmes...
was implemented in 1967, whereby all 18-year-old males were required to train full-time for two or two-and-a-half years, depending on their educational attainment. Transgender
Transgender
Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....
was listed as a condition in a Singapore Armed Forces
Singapore Armed Forces
The Singapore Armed Forces is the military arm of the Total Defence of the Republic of Singapore; as well as the military component of the Ministry of Defence. The SAF comprises three branches: the Singapore Army, the Republic of Singapore Air Force and the Republic of Singapore Navy...
(SAF) 'Directory of Diseases' and recruits who outed themselves to the examining doctors at the Central Manpower Base (CMPB) at Depot Road had their 'deployability' denied in sensitive positions. They were classified as Category 302 personnel, downgraded to a Physical Employment Status of C or E and assigned only non-combat roles at military bases.
Transgender individuals who have undergone sex reassignment surgery (SRS) are able to skip National Service entirely. However due to the difficulty of transitioning early, only a very small percentage of transsexuals in Singapore are actually able to obtain SRS before having to enter National Service.
In rare cases, it's possible for a transgendered people to be exempted from National Service despite not undergoing sex reassignment surgery. However this is mostly up to the medical-officer in charge and varies case by case. In general, transsexuals that look like normal females have a much higher chance of being exempted.
Early sex reassignment surgery
As Singaporean gynaecological surgeons became more skillful, leaders in the field like Prof. S Shan RatnamShan Ratnam
Emeritus Professor Sittampalam Shanmugaratnam was the professor and head of the department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of the National University Hospital of Singapore specializing in human reproduction research. His work on contraception contributed to Singapore's success in population control...
were authorised to perform Sex reassignment surgery male-to-female
Sex reassignment surgery male-to-female
Sex reassignment surgery from male to female involves reshaping the male genitals into a form with the appearance of and, as far as possible, the function of female genitalia. Prior to any surgeries, trans women usually undergo hormone replacement therapy and facial hair removal...
(SRS) at Kandang Kerbau Hospital. The first such operation in Asia took place in Singapore in July 1971. However, before patients could go under the knife, they first had to subject themselves to an exhaustive battery of tests and be given a clean psychological bill of health by chief academic psychiatrist
Psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
Prof. Tsoi Wing Foo.
Legal reform
In 1973, Singapore legalized sex-reassignment surgery. A policy was instituted to enable post-operative transsexual people to change the legal gender on their identity cards (but not their birth certificates) and other documents which flowed from that. There was no specific provision in the statutes which allowed the Registrar to do this, so it existed probably only at the level of a policy directive. However, for over 20 years, this policy seemed to have operated smoothly.Further developments in sex reassignment institutions
Later, the more technically demanding sex reassignment surgery female-to-maleSex reassignment surgery female-to-male
Sex reassignment surgery from female to male includes a variety of surgical procedures for transsexual men that alter female anatomical traits to provide physical traits more appropriate to the trans man's male identity and functioning....
was also offered at Kandang Kerbau Hospital and at Alexandra Hospital
Alexandra Hospital
Alexandra Hospital is a 400-bed hospital located in the south-western part of Singapore. Nestled in a 110,000 square metre land, the hospital is a picture of tranquil setting, lined with mostly colonial style buildings built since the late 1930s...
, performed by gynecologists such as Dr. Ilancheran. A Gender Identity Clinic (GIC) and Gender Reassignment Surgery Clinic were set up at the National University Hospital
National University Hospital
The National University Hospital , established in 1985, is Singapore's only university hospital. It serves as a tertiary hospital as well as a clinical training centre and a research centre for the medical and dental faculties of the National University of Singapore...
two decades later. It was headed by Prof. S Shan Ratnam
Shan Ratnam
Emeritus Professor Sittampalam Shanmugaratnam was the professor and head of the department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of the National University Hospital of Singapore specializing in human reproduction research. His work on contraception contributed to Singapore's success in population control...
until his retirement in 1995, after which leadership passed to his nephew, Dr. Anandakumar. In fact, for 30 years, Singapore was one of the world leaders in SRS, performing more than 500 such operations. This gave a new lease on life to the many transgender individuals whose bodies did not match their gender identity. As one consequence of this, Bugis Street and Johore Road started to become populated with a range of transgender people from transvestites to iatrogenic intersex
Intersex
Intersex, in humans and other animals, is the presence of intermediate or atypical combinations of physical features that usually distinguish female from male...
individuals to fully transformed women.
In the 1970s, a well-known transsexual model was occasionally featured in Her World
Her World
Her World is a monthly English-language magazine published in Singapore targeted at the female professionals reading market. It is also the first English-language women magazine to be published in Malaysia and Singapore. The magazine was published since July 1960...
magazine.
Legalization of transgender marriage
Since the mid-1970s, post-operative transsexual people had been discreetly lobbying to be given the right to get married to opposite-sex spouses. In 1996, a bill was presented before the Parliament of SingaporeParliament of Singapore
The Parliament of the Republic of Singapore and the President jointly make up the legislature of Singapore. Parliament is unicameral and is made up of Members of Parliament who are elected, as well as Non-constituency Members of Parliament and Nominated Members of Parliament who are appointed...
and the Women's Charter amended to read:
- Avoidance of marriages between persons of same sex.
- (1) A marriage solemnized in Singapore or elsewhere between persons who, at the time of the marriage, are not respectively male and female shall be void.
- (2) It is hereby declared that, subject to sections 5, 9, 10, 11 and 22, a marriage solemnized in Singapore or elsewhere between a person who has undergone a sex re-assignment procedure and any person of the opposite sex is and shall be deemed always to have been a valid marriage.
- (3) For the purpose of this section
- (a) the sex of any party to a marriage as stated at the time of the marriage in his or her identity card issued under the National Registration Act (Cap. 201) shall be prima faciePrima faciePrima facie is a Latin expression meaning on its first encounter, first blush, or at first sight. The literal translation would be "at first face", from the feminine form of primus and facies , both in the ablative case. It is used in modern legal English to signify that on first examination, a...
evidence of the sex of the party; and - (b) a person who has undergone a sex reassignment procedure shall be identified as being of the sex to which the person has been reassigned.
- (a) the sex of any party to a marriage as stated at the time of the marriage in his or her identity card issued under the National Registration Act (Cap. 201) shall be prima facie
- (4) Nothing in subsection (2) shall validate any such marriage which had been declared by the High CourtHigh Court of SingaporeThe High Court of the Republic of Singapore is the lower division of the Supreme Court of Singapore, the upper being the Court of Appeal. It consists of the Chief Justice of Singapore and the Judges of the High Court. Judicial Commissioners are often appointed to assist with the Court's caseload...
before 1 May 1997 to be null and void on the ground that the parties were of the same sex.
The minister moving the bill argued that since 1973, the government's intention was for people who had changed gender/sex to live a life according to their new gender, including the right to marry. Through an oversight, the law relating to marriage had not been re-aligned with the official policy to recognise sex reassignment surgery. Now that the courts had illuminated this inconsistency after a landmark case in which a woman sought and won the annulment of her marriage to a trans man
Trans man
A trans man, transman, trans guy, or FTM is a transgender or transsexual man: a person who was assigned female at birth, but who identifies as male....
(Lim Ying v Hiok Kian Ming Eric), it was necessary to amend the Women's Charter to ensure that the original intent was not undermined. Transgender people were officially granted their wish on 24 January 1996 via an announcement by MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
Abdullah Tarmugi
Abdullah Tarmugi
Abdullah Tarmugi was the Speaker of the Parliament of Singapore as well as the Member of Parliament of East Coast Group Representation Constituency from 1996 to 2011.Born to a Javanese Father and Chinese Mother...
without much public fanfare or opposition.
Closure and reopening of the GIC
The Gender Identity Clinic (GIC)at the National University HospitalNational University Hospital
The National University Hospital , established in 1985, is Singapore's only university hospital. It serves as a tertiary hospital as well as a clinical training centre and a research centre for the medical and dental faculties of the National University of Singapore...
quietly closed in 2001. The official explanation was that the gynecologist in charge had left for private practice, and without him, the clinic did not have the skills to perform SRS. However, as early as 1987, the Ministry of Health had been directing hospitals to stop doing such operations on foreigners. It also discouraged them for Singaporeans, saying 'the increased danger of AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
with such patients poses unnecessary risk to hospital staff'.
This dismayed transgender people seeking to have their operations performed locally. The online edition of the now-defunct newspaper Project Eyeball carried out a survey in June 2001 asking, "Should sex-change
Sex reassignment surgery
Sex reassignment surgery is a term for the surgical procedures by which a person's physical appearance and function of their existing sexual characteristics are altered to resemble...
operations be resumed in Singapore?" 39% of respondents said, "Yes, they are people with valid medical needs, like infertile couples" and 35% said, "Why not? It is legal here, as are transsexual marriages". The results showed that Singaporeans were generally quite supportive.
The transgender community petitioned for the GIC to be reopened and were successful, with the clinic discreetly resuming it services in 2003, helmed by Dr. Ilancheran. However, owing to the discrimination against transgender people in Singapore even within some segments of the medical community, the high financial outlay involved and the necessity for psychological clearance, many preferred to have their operations performed sans the hassles in Bangkok
Bangkok
Bangkok is the capital and largest urban area city in Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep , meaning "city of angels." The full name of Bangkok is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom...
, which had by then become the première centre for SRS.
Bugis Street
One of Singapore's most famous tourist meccas since the 1950s, renowned internationally for its nightly parade of flamboyantly dressed trans women, Bugis Street attracted hordes of Caucasian gawkers who had never witnessed Asian queens in full regalia.The latter would tease, cajole and sit on visitors' laps or pose for photographs for a fee. The amount of revenue that they raked in was considerable, providing a shot in the arm for the tourism industry. Veterans recall that the notorious drinking section began at Victoria Street
Victoria Street, Singapore
Victoria Street [Tamil]: விக்டோரியா ஸ்திரீட் is a street located in the Central Area of Singapore. The street starts at Victoria Bridge at the end of Kallang Road, after the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority building, in the north and continues as Hill Street at its junction with Stamford Road...
, and proceeded west to Queen Street
Queen Street, Singapore
Queen Street is one of the oldest streets in Singapore and once had a very strong Eurasian presence. Beginning at Arab street, Queen Street forms major junctions with Ophir Road, Rochor Road, Middle Road and Bras Basah Road before ending at the junction of Stamford Road and Armenian Street.The area...
. Halfway between Victoria and Queen Streets, there was an intersecting lane parallel to the main roads, also lined with al fresco
Al fresco dining
Al Fresco dining is eating outside . In temperate climates it is especially popular in the summer months when temperatures and weather are most favorable. It is a style of dining that is casual and often party-like in its atmosphere...
bars. There was a well-patronised public toilet with a flat roof of which there are archival photos, complete with jubilant rooftop trans women. The earliest published description of Bugis Street found by Yawning Bread as a place of great gender diversity was in the book "Eastern Windows" by Ommaney, F.D. (1960. London:Longmans. pp. 39–45). Ommaney did not date specifically his description of the street, but his book made clear that he was in Singapore from 1955 to 1960.
In the mid-1980s, Bugis Street underwent major urban redevelopment into a retail complex of modern shopping malls, restaurants and nightspots mixed with regulated back-alley roadside vendors. Underground digging to construct the Bugis MRT station
Bugis MRT Station
Bugis MRT Station is located on the East West Line of Singapore MRT. It is located next to Bugis Junction, which has a direct link to the mall. It has almost the same design as the neighbouring Lavender MRT Station, save for the different colours of lights used...
prior to that also caused the upheaval and termination of the nightly transgender sex bazaar culture, marking the end of a colourful and unique era in Singapore's history. Tourist and local lamentation of the loss sparked attempts by the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board (STPB) to attempt to recreate some of the old sleazy splendour by staging contrived "Ah Qua shows" on wooden platforms, but these artificial performances failed to pull in the crowds. They were abandoned after a short time.
Bugis Street was immortalised in an English-language film of the same name, made, ironically, by a Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
film company which did employ some local talent in its production.
Johore Road
Formerly located between and parallel to Queen StreetQueen Street, Singapore
Queen Street is one of the oldest streets in Singapore and once had a very strong Eurasian presence. Beginning at Arab street, Queen Street forms major junctions with Ophir Road, Rochor Road, Middle Road and Bras Basah Road before ending at the junction of Stamford Road and Armenian Street.The area...
and Victoria Street
Victoria Street, Singapore
Victoria Street [Tamil]: விக்டோரியா ஸ்திரீட் is a street located in the Central Area of Singapore. The street starts at Victoria Bridge at the end of Kallang Road, after the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority building, in the north and continues as Hill Street at its junction with Stamford Road...
, and bisected by Ophir Road
Ophir Road
Ophir Road is a road that starts after the junction of Sungei Road and Jalan Besar and ends after the Ophir Flyover leading towards East Coast Parkway to Ayer Rajah Expressway or Singapore Changi Airport. The road is located within the planning areas of Kallang, Downtown Core and Rochor...
, Johore Road was the less well-known cousin of its glamorous counterpart, Bugis Street
Bugis Street
Bugis, in the city-state of Singapore, was renowned internationally from the 1950s to the 1980s for its nightly gathering of trans women, a phenomenon which made it one of Singapore's top tourist destinations during that period....
, just a stone's throw away. It was the seedy haunt of transgender prostitutes who solicited sex from locals, away from the glare of Western tourists. No photographs or media attention were focused on this street of ill-repute; only a no-frills approach to an economic exchange.
It was one of the few roads to be completely erased from the map of Singapore after a fire in the late 90s, to be replaced by an unnamed park next to the Bugis MRT station and the Victoria Street Wholesale Centre.
Boom Boom Room
Boom Boom Boom was Singapore's only drag queenDrag queen
A drag queen is a man who dresses, and usually acts, like a caricature woman often for the purpose of entertaining. There are many kinds of drag artists and they vary greatly, from professionals who have starred in films to people who just try it once. Drag queens also vary by class and culture and...
cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
nightclub
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
and thought by many also to be Singapore's only real national institution in the same uninhibited spirit as the original Bugis Street
Bugis Street
Bugis, in the city-state of Singapore, was renowned internationally from the 1950s to the 1980s for its nightly gathering of trans women, a phenomenon which made it one of Singapore's top tourist destinations during that period....
. It is the namesake of John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist.Hooker began his life as the son of a sharecropper, William Hooker, and rose to prominence performing his own unique style of what was originally closest to Delta blues. He developed a 'talking blues' style that was his trademark...
's legendary blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
club in San Francisco, shooting to international fame when the postmodernist magazine Wallpaper
Wallpaper
Wallpaper is a kind of material used to cover and decorate the interior walls of homes, offices, and other buildings; it is one aspect of interior decoration. It is usually sold in rolls and is put onto a wall using wallpaper paste...
called it "our top pick for a good night out in all of Asia!"
Originally established by owner Alan Koh in 1993 at 4 New Bugis Street in Bugis Village, it later relocated on 2 April 2000 to the second floor of the old 2-storey Chui Eng Free School schoolhouse at 130-132 Amoy Street, Far East Square (10 min walk from the Raffles Place MRT Station
Raffles Place MRT Station
Raffles Place MRT Station ' is a Mass Rapid Transit interchange station on the North South Line and the East West Line in Singapore. It is directly beneath the centre of the financial district of Raffles Place, located in the Downtown Core area, south of the Singapore River...
). The new venue, which was reputed to have the best Singapore Sling
Singapore Sling
The Singapore Sling is a cocktail that was developed sometime before 1915 by Ngiam Tong Boon , a bartender working at the Long Bar in Raffles Hotel Singapore...
in town, had a restaurant downstairs for informal and outdoor dining.
Its overwhelming attraction were the risqué comedy routines by local drag
Drag (clothing)
Drag is used for any clothing carrying symbolic significance but usually referring to the clothing associated with one gender role when worn by a person of another gender. The origin of the term "drag" is unknown, but it may have originated in Polari, a gay street argot in England in the early...
superstar Kumar
Kumar (drag queen)
Kumar is Singapore's best known cross-dressing performer. Kumar used to perform at the now defunct Boom Boom Room and Gold Dust. He now performs on Friday and Saturday nights at 3 Monkeys Cafe and on Monday nights at Hard Rock Cafe. He will be headlining "Kumar:Stripped Bare and Standing Up" at the...
who took no-holds-barred digs at topics close to the hearts of Singaporeans. He was aided by his coterie of flamboyant, dazzlingly costumed, cross-dressing backups, nubile toyboys and other straight stand-up comedian/comedienne friends.
The first performance debuted on 18 August 2000. There were 2 shows each night and outrageous wisecracks, in raw Singlish
Singlish
Colloquial Singaporean English, also known as Singlish, is an English-based creole language spoken in Singapore.Singlish is commonly regarded with low prestige in Singapore. The Singaporean government and many Singaporeans alike heavily discourage the use of Singlish in favour of Standard English...
which made the banter difficult for tourists to understand, were interspersed with DJs playing the latest chart tunes. Members of the audience sitting next to the stage ran the highest risk of being drawn into the performance. It was patronised by a largely heterosexual audience who danced wildly during the intervals, but Tuesday nights were gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
with access granted to password holders only.
It closed after 12 years on 15 January 2005, reportedly to enable its artists to move on to fresh creative pursuits. However, many thought other reasons were that the shows were getting stale, the drag queen
Drag queen
A drag queen is a man who dresses, and usually acts, like a caricature woman often for the purpose of entertaining. There are many kinds of drag artists and they vary greatly, from professionals who have starred in films to people who just try it once. Drag queens also vary by class and culture and...
s were getting old (Kumar
Kumar (drag queen)
Kumar is Singapore's best known cross-dressing performer. Kumar used to perform at the now defunct Boom Boom Room and Gold Dust. He now performs on Friday and Saturday nights at 3 Monkeys Cafe and on Monday nights at Hard Rock Cafe. He will be headlining "Kumar:Stripped Bare and Standing Up" at the...
was 36) with no fresh blood to carry the torch and the existing ones not having what it took, and the club's poor location. It spawned a spoof
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
version called the Bang Bang Room at Changi Village
Changi Village
Changi Village is a modern village at the north-eastern end of Singapore. The Government of Singapore has pledged in 2005 that they would try to revive the "ghost town".-Hotel:...
which held late night performances every weekend.
Desker Road vicinity
A well-known area for men seeking the services of non-transsexual women prostitutes in the SerangoonSerangoon
Serangoon is town situated in the central part of the city-state of Singapore, within the North-East Region. The Housing and Development Board housing estate of Serangoon New Town in Serangoon is one of the smaller new towns. Its town centre is known as Serangoon Central, and is the target of...
or Little India
Little India (location)
Little India is an ethnic enclave containing a large population of Indian people within a society where the majority of people are either not South Asians or where the majority in the enclave are indigenous to states in the country of India within a South Asian Society not identifying as Indian...
area for decades, it attracted many of the transgender street-walkers from nearby Johore Road after the latter was erased from the map by a fire in the late 1990s.
Unlike their genotypically female government-regulated counterparts who are on display, usually seated on armchairs or sofas in well-lit rooms, reminiscent of a low-class back-lane version of Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
, the trans women of Desker Road, in contrast, cruise while standing or strolling. This is done to render their activities, which are considered illegal, less vulnerable to vice squad
Vice Squad
Vice Squad is a punk band formed in 1978 in Bristol, England. The band formed from two other local punk bands, The Contingent and TV Brakes. Songwriter and vocalist Beki Bondage was a founding member and is currently with the band, although there was a period of time when the band had a different...
raids. The seedy atmosphere of the whole vicinity has largely disappeared due to massive redevelopment around Mustafa Centre
Mustafa Centre
Mustafa Centre is one of Singapore's 24-hour shopping malls, which is located on Syed Alwi Road in Little India.-Mustafa department store:Mustafa Centre houses the Mustafa department store, which caters mainly to the budget market...
.
Changi Village has been popular with trans women since the early 1990s and the straight men who go there to ogle at them, chat them up or use their services.
Woodlands Town Garden is a "heartland" park smack in the middle of a Housing Development Board satellite town which has recently gained notoriety for the activities of transvestites, some of whom reportedly rather aggressively solicit paid sex from casual passers-by.
Gold Dust
Located on level 2 of the rear block of Orchard Towers along Orchard RoadOrchard Road
Orchard Road is a road in Singapore that is the retail and entertainment hub of the city-state. It is regularly frequented by the local population as well as being a major tourist attraction...
, it is Singapore's second drag queen
Drag queen
A drag queen is a man who dresses, and usually acts, like a caricature woman often for the purpose of entertaining. There are many kinds of drag artists and they vary greatly, from professionals who have starred in films to people who just try it once. Drag queens also vary by class and culture and...
cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
nightclub, a joint venture between Kumar, and partner Gwen Koh, who also owns the 3 Monkeys Restaurant in Orchard Towers. Together, they spent $50,000 to open the venue in July 2005, 6 months after the closure of Boom Boom Room.
Aiming for the high-end market, Gold Dust boasts professional dancers with flamboyant mardi gras
Mardi Gras
The terms "Mardi Gras" , "Mardi Gras season", and "Carnival season", in English, refer to events of the Carnival celebrations, beginning on or after Epiphany and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday...
-type costumes, and women dancing alongside drag performers. Kumar's trademark provocative jokes are still the main focus, but now framed in a classier and more streamlined show. Kumar aims to capture the cozy feel and stylish look of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
-style theatre bars. Thus, the 3000 sq ft (278.7 m²) club has no dance floor and all the chairs and tables face the stage. It can hold 180 people, and has the feel of a 1970s glam disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
, updated for the new generation. Instead of young National Servicemen and students, who formed a significant part of the Boom Boom Room
Boom Boom Room
Boom Boom Room was a British male vocal/instrumental pop group, comprising Andy Nakanza , Skid , Inz , and Lushi . Lushi was also in a band called One The Juggler...
clientéle, Gold Dust intends to target a slightly more upper-crust crowd.
The main aim of the theatre bar is to showcase talent. In addition to the cabaret dances and stand-up comedy staples, it is considering expanding the shows to include mime
Mime artist
A mime artist is someone who uses mime as a theatrical medium or as a performance art, involving miming, or the acting out a story through body motions, without use of speech. In earlier times, in English, such a performer was referred to as a mummer...
, monologues, plays and singing. Partner Kumar decided to open the venture because he needed a steady income stream, as well as a home base for his stand-up performances. Although the bar is located in the back block of Orchard Towers where Harry's Bar and Jason's supermarket reside, some felt that the idea of a bar next to the infamous '4 floors of whores' may not appeal to some patrons. However, Kumar felt that Orchard Towers was always known to be a controversial place, and since he was also a controversial performer who pushed the boundaries, it made sense for the bar to be based there.'
For the first time, Kumar's show incorporates two female professional dancers, Samantha Kan and Aslinda . There were only male dancers at the Boom Boom Room
Boom Boom Room
Boom Boom Room was a British male vocal/instrumental pop group, comprising Andy Nakanza , Skid , Inz , and Lushi . Lushi was also in a band called One The Juggler...
. He always felt that the latter was lacking something and now he realised that it was girls.
Chinatown Caberat is a drag queen cabaret opened in 2006 by entrepreneur Max Lim at Ann Siang Hill.
Transgender organisations
- SgButterfly http://www.sgbutterfly.org/,http://www.youtube.com/user/sgbutterfly - Singapore's first and largest transgender web portal and support group founded by a heterosexual man, Daniel Kaw.
- SgGurls http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sggurls/,http://www.facebook.com/sggurls?sk=info - Singapore's second trans woman support group which seeks a higher social profile and aims to reach out to mainstream society.
- Sisters In Solidarity http://endtransgenderdiscrimination.wordpress.com/ - a trans woman support group formed by Marla Bendini and Tricia Leong in 2009 to combat discrimination against transgender women in Singapore.
Transgender men
There is far less information available on trans men, that is female-to-male transgenderTransgender
Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....
people, as they are much less visible.
See also
- Singapore gay terminology
- LGBT rights in Singapore
- List of transgender-related topics
Further reading
- SisterhoodSisterhoodSisterhood may refer to:* Sibling, sisters and brothers* Sorority, a social organization for undergraduate students* Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, a novel by Rebecca Wells* The Sisterhood, a short-lived English goth band...
by Leona Lo (Select Books, 2003, ISBN 981-04-7198-X)- a personalised emotional exposé of the local transvestite and transsexual community by an intellectual trans womanTrans womanA trans woman is a male-to-female transsexual or transgender person and the term trans woman is preferred by some individuals over various medical terms. Other non-medical terms include t-girl, tg-girl and ts-girl...
herself. - My Sisters: Their Stories by Leona Lo and Lance Lee (Viscom Editions Pte Ltd)
- Cries from Within by S. Shan RatnamShan RatnamEmeritus Professor Sittampalam Shanmugaratnam was the professor and head of the department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of the National University Hospital of Singapore specializing in human reproduction research. His work on contraception contributed to Singapore's success in population control...
; Victor H. H. Goh and Tsoi Wing Foo- a tome on sex-reassignment surgery and its attendant psychological considerations by two eminent gynaecologists and a psychiatrist. - "The Mak Nyahs: Malaysian Male to Female Transsexuals" (Singapore: Eastern Universities Press, 2002, viii + 175pp., ISBN 981-210-209-4) - a large body of information on the Malay transgender, transvestite and transsexual communities amassed by sociologist Teh Yik Koon from the School of Social Development, University Utara Malaysia.
External links
- Yawning Bread's account of Singapore's transgenderTransgenderTransgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....
and sex-change history: http://www.yawningbread.org/arch_2005/yax-457.htm - Transgender Asia
- Gold Dust Club