Despite new barriers and security checkpoints to comply with new regulations forbidding foreigners, Singapore’s largest LGBT event Pink Dot drew crowds of 20,000.

An estimated 25,000 attended previous Pink Dot events, but for the 2017 organisers faced a number of challenges.

Last year, to government banned foreign sponsorship of the event, prompting 120 local firms to step in and provide nearly double the organisers’ target.

In May it was announced Non-Singapore permanent residents would not be allowed to attend Singapore’s Pink Dot 2017 due to changes in the city-state’s Public Order Act that forbid foreigners taking part in demonstrations at the venue.

"Even with this restricted space that limits Singapore's true propensity for love, we feel that we have taken yet another important step in achieving true equality for all," spokesperson Paerin Choa said according to the BBC.

Retiree Loh Kwek Leong, 63, who was in the queue with his wife, daughter, and his daughter's boyfriend, said he thought the LGBT cause was a worthy one.

"One day these people will be given the freedom to love and marry someone of the same sex. And when my grandkids look back on this, I want them to see their grandfather was on the right side of history,” he told the Straits Times.