It always fascinates me when I meet queer Singaporeans in their 50s and 60s who moved to San Francisco / Oakland, who have never experienced Singapore as a place where they knew anyone who was open and out. Who don’t really have much of a link at all to the queer Singapore that I know and love.

Vs

That is the only life I know, almost all of my friends there are queer activists, the only people in the closet are religious people, lots of people ‘cohabitate’, buy homes, have children (logistically harder but I have seen it)

A lot has changed in a very short time; and nothing has, too, in other ways.

#Singapore#TpotSea#LGBTQ

Their lives in America are also so.. functionally different from mine.

They remember a time when even if they were in a committed relationship for decades there were still no paths to staying on, before same sex marriage brought immigration benefits.

And with maybe 1-2 exceptions, none of them came here for the tech industry, which is probably 99% of all Singaporeans who make the move today.