Queer Activities
The Substation has been at the forefront of queer-rights activities since the early 1990s. People Like Us (abbreviation: P.L.U.) was a pioneering gay-activist group that began as a small discussion group in 1993. Its main objective was to build a sense of gay-consciousness in Singapore and the group held monthly forums and meetings at The Substation on Sundays. Many who came to the forum half-expected to be arrested, as individuals from the Internal Security Department and the police had questioned the group’s organisers and attendees about the nature of the meetings. After a gestation of three years, the book People Like Us: Sexual Minorities in Singapore (ed. Joseph Lo and Huang Guoqin; Select Publishing) was launched by P.L.U. at Select Books in March 2003, featuring papers presented at two closed-door forums that Joseph Lo organised in 1999 at The Substation. The book also contained essays contributed by others on diverse topics, such as the representation of homosexuality in theatre, gay interracial relationships, and Christianity. The 1990s was a tense time for gay-activism in Singapore, and The Substation played an important part in its development through the work of P.L.U.. Since then, The Substation has also helped to host the yearly Short Circuit queer film-screening, featuring works by gay filmmakers from Singapore. Held once every year since 2007, the most recent segment of Short Circuit took place on 6 Jan 2012 at The Substation Theatre, organised by filmmakers He Shuming and Boo Junfeng. The event was completely sold out.
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