Fort Road beach: gay aspects

=Cruising ground= A new experience in open-air cruising afforded itself in the 1980s when a huge stretch of the East Coast was reclaimed by land filling. The minimum period for the earth to settle and compact before the virgin land could be developed or have structures built upon it was 10 years. Therefore, during this time gays would venture there, despite having to brave a long trek through secondary forest, to be able to cruise at the beach in splendid seclusion.

This cruising ground became popularly known as Fort Road beach by the cognoscenti although there existed no official name for this stretch of beach. There were two main portions. The moiety on the left, facing the sea, became closed off to the public in the mid-1990s and thus could no longer be used for romping around. This area became overgrown with undergrowth in due course. Gay cruisers had to be content with the right half which was had a slightly different character because of different geographical features. Fort Road beach became so popular with gay men using it for skinny dipping and sex, either in the more interior forested area, or for the more daring ones right on the open beach or in the sea, that it attracted several tabloid articles which emblazoned titles such as "Homosexuals pollute East Coast". The New Paper and the Chinese-language evening tabloids on several occasions carried blurred pictures of men apparently having sex or walking naked along the beach. Some gay men nicknamed the beach and the area directly inland, which was also very cruisy at night and appealed those who did not want to trudge all the way to the seaside, Paradise.

The right half of the beach eventually also became closed to the public in early 2010 as development of the area was ramped up full swing.  

=Police entrapment= Complaints from the public and sensationalism in the tabloid press led to sting operations in which handsome plainclothes police decoys would act in an enticing manner at Fort Road beach to attract the homosexual men wandering around. When the cruisers touched the decoys sexually, they were immediately arrested.

The most publicised entrapment operation occurred in September 1993 when 12 men were apprehended. They were all charged in court with outrage of modesty. 6 pleaded guilty. They were sentenced to 3 strokes of the cane each and imprisonment ranging from 2 to 6 months. The names, ages and occupations of all 12 men were published in all major Singaporean newspapers. It is rumoured that one of the arrested men committed suicide.

Straits Times report

 * Main article: Archive of The Straits Times article, "12 men nabbed in anti-gay operation at Tanjong Rhu", 23 Nov 1993

The following article reporting on the entrapment operation in September 1993 and its aftermath was published in The Straits Times on 23 November 1993. Even though the mainstream media referred to the location as "Tanjong Rhu", gay men who cruised there always used the name Fort Road beach or just Fort Road. This event is therefore sometimes referred to as the Fort Road incident. Tanjong Rhu was generally understood by most Singaporeans to be the residential area inland of Fort Road. 

One of the accused, hawker Tan Boon Hock, then 43, had approached and struck up a conversation with a constable decoy, but no explicit agreement was made. Nonetheless, given the circumstances and location, Tan assumed that the other party was willing. However, as soon as Tan unzipped the undercover policman's fly and touched his penis, the decoy identified himself and Tan was arrested.

Tan was charged under Section 354 of the Penal Code (outrage of modesty). It was quite odd that he was not charged under Section 377A (gross indecency between males), perhaps because Section 354 permitted caning, and the Government wanted caning as part of the penalty.

Tan pleaded guilty, probably hoping to be let off lightly, but was shocked to receive a sentence of 4 month's imprisonment and 3 strokes of the cane. He appealed against the sentence.

Short film
This episode was immortalised in movie producer Boo Jun Feng's short film, "Tanjong Rhu": 

=Reaction of gay community=

The gay community was outraged by what they felt was a gross infringement of their right to consensual adult homosexual sex and the inhumane punishment meted out to the arrested men who had been instigated by agents provocateurs. Heterosexual Singaporeans could continue to have sex in parked cars and in secluded public areas with impunity, whilst homosexuals were being singled out for vilification.

Protest
In response to both the entrapment exercise, the punishments and the sensationalist treatment of this and other gay-related news stories by the press, two Singaporean artists, Josef Ng (born in Thailand) and Shannon Tham, created performance pieces that the government clearly found threatening to the dominant order. Ng and Tham’s works were presented in the context of a 12-hour New Year’s Eve event which included numerous other performances, literary readings and live music. Early in the morning on Friday, 31 December 1993 at the 5th Passage Gallery which occupied a service corridor in Parkway Parade, a large suburban shopping center dominated by Isetan and Yaohan department stores, Josef Ng gave a performance entitled "Brother Cane", apparently alluding to the caning sentence meted out to the victims of the entrapment operation.

Immediately after it finished the gallery was raided by the police. The spectators, and there were many, dispersed rapidly. The gallery was closed. Ng and his collaborators were arrested. Ng was charged with committing an obscene act which he pleaded guilty to as a course of least resistance. Iris Tan, the gallery manager, was prosecuted for allowing him to do it.

=See also=


 * Singapore gay venues: historical

=References=
 * "Words From The Man", Blowing Wind, 23 October 2007.