Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia: Arrested Development!

Abstract

The focus of this chapter is on lesbian and gay (LG) activism in three neighbouring countries in Southeast Asia: Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. To understand the extent to which the State has influenced the LG movement in each of these countries there are a set of theoretical protocols needed in transferring the language and practice of lesbian and gay activism that are often more or less derived and self evident in Western polities, into a specific Southeast Asian context. As Michael G. Peletz (2007) has remarked about the study of gender, body politics and sexualities in Asia, there are dynamics at work in Asian cultures and societies that do not make it necessarily inevitable that LG activism will mirror what has developed in the West. On the other hand, homosexual rights activists across Asia do engage with modernity, liberalist positionings, transnational queer activists and human rights frameworks in their struggles.