Test 2

Please select your preferred language.

請選擇你慣用的語言。

请选择你惯用的语言。

English
中文简体
台灣繁體
香港繁體

Login

Remember Me

New to Fridae?

Fridae Mobile

Advertisement
Highlights

More About Us

28 Apr 2011

In or out: Politicians in Asia

While it might be generally accepted that coming out not only contributes to an individual's sense of well-being but also serves a public good, Charles Tan observes that some LGBT activists are appearing to advocate the reverse when it comes to the issue of outing politicians.

It is an accepted fact especially by many members within the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community that coming out of the closet (or declaring one's sexual orientation and/ or gender identity) to oneself and others generally contributes to the individual sense of well-being. The argument is derived from the belief that being honest about one's sexuality and/or gender identity contributes to greater individual acceptance. This acceptance is extended to the wider circle when an individual chose to come out to others. As such, coming out is not merely a personal choice but incorporates a social and political dimension. As more LGBT people come out of their closets, it is argued that mainstream society would become more accepting of them. In turn, it becomes less politically correct to discriminate against LGBT individuals. Activists would therefore be able to fight for equal rights in a more hospitable environment.

Top: Presidential hopeful and Taiwan Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairperson, Tsai Ing-Wen; Dr Vincent Wijeysingha, Singapore Democratic Party candidate

Despite these arguments, some LGBT activists advocate the reverse when it comes to the issue of outing politicians. Two recent examples show how these beliefs get thrown out of the window in support of the right to privacy. 

The first instance occurred in Taiwan when Shih Ming-The, a renowned democracy activist, demanded the current Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairperson, Tsai Ing-Wen to declare her sexuality. Shih argued that Tsai needs to be open about her sexuality towards the voting public as she may become the next President. The argument goes: She is unfit for office if she cannot be honest about her sexuality to herself and the citizenry. Women rights activists have accused him of discrimination and human rights violations for "forcing a woman to confirm speculation that she may be a lesbian is a brutal, inhumane form of persecution".

This outcry is invariably sensational and cheapens human rights since the right to privacy is not absolute and depends on the situation. In this particular case, it is difficult to justify how outing Tsai will lead to her being persecuted given her position and political clout. Surely, rights activists would be better informed that much more serious human rights violations are occurring in other parts of the world such as the physical attacks against LGBT defenders in Zimbawe or Cameroon. These attacks deserve universal condemnation, not the right to privacy in Tsai's case since no potential harm is perceived. 

A similar form of mudslinging is occurring in the current Singapore elections when a ruling party candidate, Vivian Balakrishnan, of the Peoples' Action Party, hinted in a media interview that one of the candidates from the opposition, Singapore Democratic Party, Vincent Wijeysingha, is gay and harboured a 'gay agenda'. As insinuated by Vivian, his statement was based on a youtube clip. In the film, Vincent was believed to have attended a forum on the repeal of the 377A, a legislation that criminalises same sex male behaviour. Vivian had also described the forum as one of touching on topics such as sex with boys and age of consent. The SDP has since voiced its support of Vincent, stating that it will not discriminate against anyone regardless of their ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation. 

The online response from the public in Singapore appears to be tilted towards Vincent. Li Shi-En Lisa, 'saddened by the appearance of such gutter politics', has argued that if decriminalising gay sex is considered a 'gay cause', then it is merely a fight for basic human rights. Prominent gay rights activists and blogger, Alex Au of Yawning Bread, has also condemned Balakrishnan's 'contemptuous' politicking. However, he has urged the SDP to allow its candidates to be more open for pragmatic reasons. He argues that these rumours can only be quelled if Vincent is more candid about his sexuality.

Siew Kum Hong, a former Nominated Member of Parliament and lawyer explains thus, "The PAP can try all it wants, but the objective here is transparently clear to everyone: to tell the world that Vincent Wijeysingha is gay, and thereby win the votes of that part of the population that will vote based on just this single wedge issue, regardless of any other issue".

In running for office, it is more or less expected of politicians to 'get their hands dirty' and engage in questionable behaviour to score points and win over votes. In this instance, Vivian's motives appear less than noble.

Nevertheless, in rallying of support for Vincent and his right not to come out (or declare his sexual orientation), political pundits who empathise with his position are caught in a blind. Some believed LGBT individuals should only come out to whomever they chose, depending on how comfortable they are with this notion. While this might sound reasonable in principle, it is not necessarily so in practice.

After all, for many LGBT individuals, coming out is a constant struggle, whether at home or in the workplace. The fear of being rejected by one's immediate family and friends may distort an individual sense of reality and prevent him or her from coming out. Yet, in many instances, this fear has proven to be unfounded.

This analogy can also be extended to the cases of Tsai and Vincent. If doubts about their sexual orientation were true, one wonders if keeping silent, and arguing for personal privacy might be a cop-out, due to fear, and whether it is rational. 

If they hoped to be elected into office by keeping their sexual orientation a secret, one can question whether this would do any justice to the LGBT minorities. After all, hasn't the community, more or less, accepted the belief that being out and proud has a significant social and political impact on mainstream society? In both instances, it can be convincingly argued that an out and proud gay or lesbian politician, through leading by example, would hopefully reduce the pervasive discrimination faced by many others in other parts of society. 

Furthermore, and this is pertinent to the above examples, it is difficult to see how outing Tsai or Vincent (if indeed they are gay) would lead to some kind of harm (according to critics or advocates of the right to absolute privacy). Sure, such an act might lead to loss of certain voter support base but it is better to win people's confidence through openness rather than appealing to pretenses. It is also a much more preferable option than being discovered and sensationalised by the media if they enter office. 

If history is any indication, being an openly gay politician is not as controversial as it is, at least in some Western countries. This would likely come to pass in both societies. The Iceland Prime Minister Johanna Siguroadottir; Australian Greens leader and senator, Bob Brown and Australian's Labor Party Senator, Penny Wong, just to name a few. While it is true that these politicians live in more tolerant societies, all of them probably have to personally struggle with the idea of coming out to the public. I suspect, they have come to the conclusion that it is better to be out in the open rather than keeping the public guessing. 

Judging by responses from the above two cases, it would be some time before we will witness out and proud gay politicians in both Singapore and Taiwan. In choosing to stay in the closet (if indeed the allegations are true), both candidates perhaps believed that voters are not rational enough to look pass their sexuality. But, when, one might ask, is the right time?

Charles Tan is a Singaporean, human rights activist and student of politics living in Australia.

Reader's Comments

1. 2011-04-28 17:30  
ahhh great article very balanced and responsible...
Thanks Mr. Tan & fridae... It really made me think again on this subject.
2. 2011-04-28 20:12  
Good to see some cool articles on Fridae!
3. 2011-04-28 21:09  
Mr. Charles Tan,

1) "But, when, one might ask, is the right time?"
The right time is when the individual chooses it...

2) "If history is any indication, being an openly gay politician is not as controversial as it is, at least in some Western countries." It is controversial in Singapore and Taiwan and China and Uganda and all those countries that chose to oppose the U.N. declaration against violence toward homosexuals ... ;(

3) "The argument goes: She is unfit for office if she cannot be honest about her sexuality to herself and the citizenry." Do heterosexuals have to declare that they are heterosexual in an election? Do they have to be honest to the public about fucking the opposite sex? If not, why should we...?

4) "This outcry is invariably sensational and cheapens human rights since the right to privacy is not absolute and depends on the situation."
The right to privacy concerning who you love and choose to fuck in bed, Mr. Tan? I would think it sensational to claim that this is not a privacy issue and basic human right! This situation is fairly clear in my mind.

5) "Sure, such an act might lead to loss of certain voter support base but it is better to win people's confidence through openness rather than appealing to pretenses. It is also a much more preferable option than being discovered and sensationalised by the media if they enter office." You might win the confidence of a sliver of the electorate, and so lose election. If you want to get elected, and you see no need to "out yourself" coz you might disenfranchise the voters you need, then that is a choice. I do NOT see this as "appealing to pretenses"! Being willing to take the heat afterwards if things are sensationalized by media is also another choice! In Uganda, you get pummeled to death with a hammer if you speak out... let alone stand for election ... in Taiwan, U.S.A, and Singapore you get hammered at the electorate and don't get elected perhaps... or have your birth questioned (sic) ... it is a choice what you do!

6) "In both instances, it can be convincingly argued that an out and proud gay or lesbian politician, through leading by example, would hopefully reduce the pervasive discrimination faced by many others in other parts of society." Perhaps... or do you have to be in public office and respected and loved over time... proven... ?

7) "Some believed LGBT individuals should only come out to whomever they chose, depending on how comfortable they are with this notion. While this might sound reasonable in principle, it is not necessarily so in practice." Who says? It's perfectly practical... happens all the time!

8) "This analogy can also be extended to the cases of Tsai and Vincent. If doubts about their sexual orientation were true, one wonders if keeping silent, and arguing for personal privacy might be a cop-out, due to fear, and whether it is rational." This is abstracted nonsense... what goes through an individual's mind and the fears and odds they gamble with totally involves him or her privately ... I think your argument is a "cop-out"... you try to advocate that there is one "personal privacy" that should be public... now that is the most socially undemocratic statement I've seen for a while... it's like this: there is a continuum and on this continuum gays have choices, and pretty much, they make those choices and live with the consequences... even if "outed" later is as bad as it gets... this is rational! The "cop-out" is to suggest that there is a "one size fits all" for the gay community... a queer and heavenly thought though it might be... there are individuals and there are communities... "HOW WE COME TO VOICE IS A PERSONAL CHOICE!"

9)"Siew Kum Hong, a former Nominated Member of Parliament and lawyer explains thus, "The PAP can try all it wants, but the objective here is transparently clear to everyone: to tell the world that Vincent Wijeysingha is gay, and thereby win the votes of that part of the population that will vote based on just this single wedge issue, regardless of any other issue"."
yes... doesn't matter whether the issue is "Publicly funded healthcare" or whatever... some voters will put a sign around an effigy of you titled, "socialist," with a Hitler mustache drawn on it... they will deny your place of birth, say that you were a shit student at Harvard, and that you support communism... Like Obama, you pick your timing to roll out your responses...

Mr. Tan, thanks for your article, but I'm not buying a bar of what you're offering... ;)
4. 2011-04-28 21:19  
simple! the right time is when they choose to do it no one should be made to feel to be beholden to have to carry the fortunes of an entire 'GLBT' (mythical) community on his/her shoulders alone.
5. 2011-04-29 04:30  
I think that's fair enough.

Ireland has changed a LOT in the past couple of decades - even though we now have a number of openly gay politicians and senators, who prove that, when it comes to (homo)sexuality, people here prettty much don't give a damn Who their politicians jump into bed with - but, that said, I wouldn't like to be Outed in my home area, which has a Lot of stupid cavemen (and women) with prejudiced, outdated attitudes (as well as, to be fair, some very nice people with modern and progressive outlooks).

If a politician or public figure is preaching intolerance towards gay people, while being gay themselves, then I think it's pretty fair to Out them, and expose their despicable double-talk. Otherwise, if someone is, personally, gay, yet not doing anything to harm or hinder the so-called 'gay community', I think it is their business, and no-one else's, of whether they're Out or not.

Regrettable, perhaps, but understandable...
Comment edited on 2011-04-29 04:31:24
6. 2011-04-29 05:22  
I completely agree with ##3, 4 and 5. In a nutshell:

1. To come out is a personal choice and this choice must be respected.
2. Professional qualities do not depend on sexual orientation.

And imagine where it can go in other professional contexts. Your boss considers promoting you but it is important for him or her to know if it is true that you are gay. Because openness at work is crucial and people who have something to hide in their lives may not be trusted for business. Or I can transpose the outing issue from political elections to elections in a trade union. Or a TV anchor should declare his or her orientation because s/he is a public figure, with lots of influence on the public. Etc. etc.
7. 2011-04-29 06:40  
any politician seeking national election should already have a plan to deal with these kinds of attacks... however unfair they may be... the real question is how do gay people feel when a candidate is attacked in this manner... do we also somehow feel indirectly victimized by these homophobic attacks... and then do we inadvertently project our own frustrations on the candidate... expecting them to respond boldly the way we would?

these politicians were savvy enough to get this far... let's see if they have the gumption to go all the way ;~)
8. 2011-04-29 10:27  
Shih Ming-teh may think he is the Mandela of Taiwan, but this does not give him the moral authority to force someone out of the closet. I'd like to ask Shih the following questions:

What's your favorite sex position? What are your favorite porn sites? How many times a day do you masturbate? What do you think about when masturbating? How much cum do you ejaculate on average? Do you like to take things up your ass? When you were in jail, how did you masturbate? Did you ever have rape fantasies while you were in prison?

Of course, if he refuses to answer any of these questions that would make him an unfit leader. After all, if he can't be honest about his sexuality he doesn't deserve to be a leader.
9. 2011-04-29 11:42  
Seoulseeker, let's be fair. Sexual orientation (identity) is such more than what one does in the bedroom agree? So I don't think asking about one's sexual orientation is the same thing as your list of questions about favorite sex positions, masturbation, etc.

And so what if he's willing to answer all those questions?

You might want to look at this photo of his dubbed "Three layers of meat". A pic of him and his 2 daughters, all in the nude... in celebration of his 70th birthday

At 70, Shih Ming-teh is Not Shy of His Age or Politics
http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?cid=1601&MainCatID=16&id=20110106000109

10. 2011-04-29 12:22  
Kellen, I raised my questions to raise a point: where do we draw the line when it comes to the questions we may ask of our public servants? Why should Shih's questions be acceptable but mine objectionable? Until you can come up with standards, I have every right to ask any manner of question that relates in any way to sexuality.

You entirely miss the point if you think I'm even remotely interested in Shih's answers to my questions (or looking at him nude with his daughters... not my scene.) Society is inflicted enough without having to know about a 70 year-old man's sexual proclivities. Of course, if I can corroborate the fact that he does indeed like to take 20 cm dildos up his anal cavity while tied to a whipping board, I think I will start a blog and enlighten the world.
11. 2011-04-29 16:17  
Seoulseeker, you seem to think asking about sexual orientation is akin to asking about about sex and dildos... but what I'm asking is if and when we should consider information regarding sexual orientation alongside information about marital status, number of children (if any), religion (if any), ethnicity, education and family background about what we expect to know about our public servants. So my question is the same as as your's: where do we draw the line?
12. 2011-04-29 17:07  
Kellen, I am not equating sexual orientation with dildos. This is something you have incorrectly inferred from my posts. But if you cannot see what the topics of sexual orientation and playing with dildos has in common, then I blush for you. The question which you are asking is no question at all for anyone with common sense. At a job interview, you are allowed to only ask the questions that are relevant to the job. For a politician, the questions should be restricted to education and experience. No one should have to answer any questions about children, family, ethnicity, etc. as these are irrelevant. You may think these are relevant standards but that is only because the media has everyone thinking they are relevant standards. Sex sells newspapers. Luridness fuels the news channels. Let's not be confused.

What offends me and should worry you is that Shih, a supposed fighter for democracy, has used his position of power to force a confession out of a woman. This is abuse, plain and simple. These tactics have no place in a police station, much less a political stage. Shih would do well to remember why he was in prison in the first place. What does freedom mean for him? He judges Tsai for choosing to remain silent on her sexuality when it is he who has already condemned himself for being a hypocrite.
13. 2011-04-29 19:48  
Seoulseeker, there's really no need to get personal by making snide remarks about what I should or shouldn't feel, or if I should blush...

We don't live in a perfect world with responsible media outlets so I don't think it's useful to base any discussion as if it were so. I don't disagree that what Shih did was nasty but are you seriously telling me that constituents shouldn't expect to know or ask what religion or any thing 'personal' (marital status, age, etc) about people seeking office? Because those details have nothing to do with their job?
14. 2011-04-30 00:08  
I would expect any politician standing for office to have sorted out whatever 'fears' they had about being openly LGBT. We're not talking about insecure teens in the throes of puberty, but adults - and moreover adults who aspire to high office.

Using the 'privacy' shield just doesn't wash. Worse though is staying in the closet to protect support from homophobic voters.

In the UK last year, we had the saddest case of a promising minister, who hadn't been open about being gay and who was found out over rent that was incorrectly paid by public funds for a home he shared with his partner.

Adults in the closet lie daily to everyone around them and let's not forget how incredibly toxic relations with a closeted person can be. Also, we never see hetero politicians, when asked about their family setup, going all coy and going on about privacy.

If hundreds of millions of LGBTs around the world have faced their demons and come on in their teens or as young adults, I'd would consider it a bad thing if an LGBT politician hadn't done the same.

The fact is it's challenging to come out and for many challenging to live an out and open life. If someone wants my vote and they're LGBT, I would have wanted them to have met that challenge too.


15. 2011-04-30 03:39  
Kellen,

Constituents need to know whether their elected politician can do the JOB at hand. Period. A great many people have placed this irrational importance on "honesty" as one of the prerequisites of being a politician. Here's a news flash: "honesty" should be a prerequisite for ANY job, not just politician. But politicians who fail this "honesty" standard are then hounded out of office. Should a school teacher who fails to disclose her sexuality to her students then be fired for not having put it down on her resume? Should a doctor or lawyer be asked in their job interviews what their sexuality is? Are their clients entitled to know this? If you were going to hire an attorney to conduct business on your behalf would you ask that attorney about their sexuality??? I can't believe you honestly think this. Sexuality is irrelevant when it comes to work. It should be irrelevant in all facets of life. Too many people, because of the media, now have it in their head that COMPLETE and TOTAL HONESTY = COMPETENT POLITICIAN and vice versa. A great number of people have been brainwashed into thinking this. Shih thinks this as well. Maybe that's why he posed nude with his daughters thinking that made him a great politician. I don't want the most "honest" surgeon operating on me, I want the most skilled one and I would hope you would as well.

In a perfect world, no one would care if someone was gay or straight. In a perfect world, we wouldn't need politicians. In a perfect world, we would all be free to show our faces and not be afraid of our parents, friends and colleagues for being gay. In a perfect world, sexuality would be a non-factor. How would you feel if your parents said to you, "You can't be a good daughter. After all, you're a lesbian and have been hiding this fact for the longest time." Be careful as to when and where you make sexuality "relevant".
Comment edited on 2011-04-30 03:40:52
16. 2011-04-30 04:51  
Interestingly, those advocating the right to privacy on this thread have photos in their profile, while those advocating the right to know politicians' private lives have no face pic (or an invalid profile)...
17. 2011-05-02 03:30  
Although as a former resident of Taiwan and a supporter of the DPP and Shih Ming De I am rethinking my support of Shih Ming De, the party leader. After-all, he shouldn't be the one to demand that anyone in his party come out or not-and there is still a question if the politician in question is even gay. There is privacy! Even for public figures. However, if a politician is in the closet AND fights against equal rights for gays and lesbians while in office then that would be a different story and "outing" him or her would be justified. More often than not in the USA this statement would refer to right-wing Republican homophobic politicians who are closeted gays themselves. Then I say "out" them. But over-all Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party has been very supportive of gay rights and human rights in general. Let's attack the right people-and not our supporters.
18. 2012-01-05 22:25  
Yes, it's true.... there is really never a "right moment"; but, in my experience coming out is a great experience of relief...

I just wonder about the current president of TW, president Ma look like he's a closeted gay, too... :)

Please log in to use this feature.

Social


Select News Edition

Featured Profiles

Now ALL members can view unlimited profiles!

Languages

View this page in a different language:

Like Us on Facebook

Partners

 ILGA Asia - Fridae partner for LGBT rights in Asia IGLHRC - Fridae Partner for LGBT rights in Asia

Advertisement