Spartacus International Gay Guide: Singapore section

Hong Lim Park was the first Singapore gay venue to be listed in the Spartacus International Gay Guide.

Following the arrival of HIV in Singapore in 1985 and the first reported death from AIDS in 1987, the police conducted entrapment operations to arrest, jail and cane gay cruisers. Restaurants and bars were warned not to serve gay men and transwomen in 1988. Spartacus according warned its readers to give Singapore a miss.

However, in 1989, the guide modified its previous advice to gay men about bypassing Singapore unless they wanted to shop. Spartacus still cautioned against going to the male brothels at Johore Road unless “you are desperate,” and it still warned that Singapore’s sodomy and gross indecency laws carried severe penalties up to ten years’ imprisonment.

But now the guide noted 7 bars had actually begun catering to gay men rather than simply tolerating them. Foreshadowing an important fashion about to arrive, the editors also wrote that the Clark Hatch chain of Western-style workout clubs had opened a branch in the Marco Polo Hotel. Gay men, they said, had begun to go there to exercise, although it warned that they still had to “be very discreet.”

Finally, shopping itself had become a key to Singapore’s gay geography; the guide now listed shopping malls where gay men had begun to cruise more publicly, noting that those spots changed rapidly, “especially in new shopping plazas as they open.”

An area of tropical beach east of Fort Road was even being described and recommended. “Well known by Singaporean gays as ‘the gay beach,”’ the guide said. “Particularly active on Sundays.”

=See also=
 * Hong Lim Park: gay aspects
 * Spartacus International Gay Guide
 * Singapore gay venues: historical

=References=
 * Gary L. Atkins, Imagining Gay Paradise: Bali, Bangkok, and Cyber-Singapore, Hong Kong University Press, 1 January 2012.

=Acknowledgements=

This article was written by Roy Tan.