1. “But They are Like You and Me”: Gay Civil Servants and Citizenship in a Cosmopolitanizing Singapore Chris K.K.Tan University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (From the journal ‘City & Society’)

2. Study Background In 2003, the Singaporean Prime Minister caused public outrage by announcing that the state would, henceforth, employ openly homosexual civil servants. The official reason behind this controversial announcement, from the head of a country still highly archaic in its legal treatment of gay and lesbian citizens (life imprisonment AND moderate to hefty fines for anyone caught acting as such), was to create a more enlightened and tolerant Singapore for all of its people. Unofficially, the author of this article thinks that the real reason behind such a contradictory announcement has more to do with helping to improve Singapore’s perceived global image than to actually improve conditions for its homosexual population.

3. To ascertain exactly why such a relatively harmless statement could generate such public outcry from the heterosexual community. To question why a formerly homophobic state so suddenly reversed its stance on the subject, and to prove that it did so only to portray the country as a modern and cosmopolitan nation to the rest of the world, and one that would make for attractive business investment. To highlight what, if any, improvements have been made with regard to public perception of the gay and lesbian community within Singaporean society. Study Goals

4. Method, Significance and Review of Study Method of research consisted primarily of the carrying out of interviews with sixteen ‘consultants’ of varying gay, lesbian and straight sexual orientation. The significance of the study is that it highlights the difference between simply stating something publicly for the sake of keeping up appearances whenever the rest of the world is watching, and actually making that statement law for the benefit of those the statement concerns regardless of who else is watching. Through the use of ‘informants’, as well as information gleaned from both existing studies and media outlets, the study illustrates perfectly how 21st Century tolerance of homosexuality in some parts of the world is still distinctly 20th Century (or even 19th!) It also highlights the hypocrisy of a government willing to exploit for its own ends, those that it would otherwise see sent to prison.