Roy Tan

Roy Tan is a healthcare professional passionately interested in documenting local LGBT history.

He has been one of the most active contributors of local LGBT-related news articles to the Singapore Gay News List (SiGNeL) since the latter's formation.





=First Singapore LGBT articles on Wikipedia=

In 2005, Tan realised the potential of the then nascent Wikipedia in informing local mainstream society and the world at large about Singapore's LGBT culture and history.

The advantage of Wikipedia was that knowledgeable contributors could consolidate widely scattered pockets of information into a one-stop reference site. This was unlike any Singaporean LGBT website that had existed before like Yawning Bread, Fridae or Trevvy in which only authorised writers could pen articles.

Tan created the first Singapore LGBT-related Wikipedia article entitled "Singapore gay movement" on 12 April 2005. He subsequently started all the other articles on Singaporean LGBT culture there in the ensuing months.

Howevever, his hope that other contributors would chip in and expand the articles he pioneered was not realised and he ended up doing most of the updating himself. Moreover, many Singaporean editors of Wikipedia were homophobic and deleted entire articles or huge chunks of extant articles, claiming that they were not significant enough for a prestigious reference work such as Wikipedia.

In dismay, Tan looked for an alternative site to transfer the articles to. He was overjoyed when he found SgWiki, a site hosted on a local server and which used the same wiki markup language as Wikipedia. He then ported all the articles to SgWiki, which had a more liberal and LGBT-friendly policy. Even then, some articles deemed sensitive because they rebutted religious condemnation of homosexuality were also deleted by SgWiki's administrators.

Another drawback was that articles on SgWiki did not rank as high up on Google and other search engines as the much more globally popular Wikipedia.

Tan also replicated all the Singapore LGBT-related articles on user-constructed knowledge sites such as the now-defunct Knol (an initiative of Google) and on other wikis such as the PB Wiki and Wikidot. These websites enabled registered users to have complete editorial control over their articles and not be subjected to the whims of appointed editors. However, these wikis used different markup languages form Wikipedia, therefore making porting articles much more difficult than just copying and pasting. The articles first had to be translated to the different wiki language used by the site.

In 2012, Tan searched for and managed to find websites such as the current one, Shoutwiki, as well as others like Wikia which used the same wiki markup language as Wikipedia. He then transplanted all the SgWiki articles to these sites - easily accomplished by direct copying and pasting with no translation required.

=Singapore LGBT video channels on YouTube=

Tan has also recorded and amassed the most comprehensive collection of local LGBT videos on YouTube divided into 2 channels - "Homosexuality in Singapore" and "Transgender people in Singapore".

=First outdoor LGBT speech in Singapore=



Tan delivered Singapore's first open-air speech on an LGBT issue to an overwhelmingly straight audience at Hong Lim Park at 5:15pm on Saturday, 13 December 2008. He spoke, on the discrimination which gay Singaporeans faced at work. The event was organised by MARUAH and entitled, "Human Rights and Dignity of Workers". It marked the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which promotes the values of justice, fairness, equality and non-discrimination.

=Registration of first LGBT pride parade and Pink Dot=

Tan intended to organise Singapore's first gay pride parade at Hong Lim Park,,,, in 2008 after the government legalised protests there. This later morphed into Pink Dot SG,,,, an event which supported the "freedom of LGBT people to love" and which later spread worldwide.





=First gay Chingay contingent=

Together with fellow citizen Tien Kim Chuan, Tan marched in Singapore's first and only gay Chingay contingent when the public were allowed to form their own marching group in 2010.





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