Fridae

Pink Dot Singapore, the city-state’s annual LGBT event, has released the first video in its series entitled ‘Our Heroes’, which highlight the real life heroes of Singapore’s LGBT community.

In this episode Rose tells her story of her marriage falling apart after her mother-in-law discovered she was a transgender woman, and persuaded her then-husband to leave her.

Homeless, she had to become a sex worker in the '70s to survive, before she started living in a shelter for transgender in the city, known as the T project.

"People think that trans people do sex work in order to affirm their gender identity as a woman... to have sex with as many men as possible.

That's not true. It's for survival — this is the only industry that doesn't question our gender identity," said June Chua, founder of the shelter, in the video.

Pink Dot Singapore has grown to be the city’s largest LGBT event and every year sees LGBT and allies come together to celebrate the ‘Freedom to Love.’ This year’s event will be help on 4 June from 3pm.