Heckin' Unicorn Blog

The bisexual and pansexual online communities appear to be at war with each other. 

And it’s painful to watch, to say the least. Insults are hurled around as people from both camps call each other’s sexuality exclusive, transphobic, harmful, fake. 

But why is this happening? How did members of the LGBTQ+ community — a community that’s all about diversity — end up attacking each other with such vehemence? 

LGBTQ+ issues are never the top priority during an election. But it might surprise you to know that in GE2020, some parties’ policies would positively impact the LGBTQ+ community—indirectly, at least. We thought it’ll be worthwhile to spend some time to summarize how each party’s manifesto affects our community.

So it has begun. On 10th July 2020, Singapore will head to the polls to vote in the General Election. And it’s going to be a pretty weird one. 

LGBTQ+ people in Singapore are systematically disadvantaged in financial, legal, and psychological ways. So for the people in the community and allies who believe in electing a more inclusive government, here’s a rundown for you to make a more informed decision. 

LGBT individuals in Singapore face harsh setbacks in their quality and cost of living. Many of these can be traced back to S377A and marriage laws, which legitimise all institutional discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community. Here are all the ways LGBTQ+ people are paying for being queer in Singapore.

Nearly all aspects of life in Singapore are systematically filtered by large, powerful institutions to remove, reduce, and vilify LGBTQ+ voices. Here's all the ways LGBTQ+ representation is systematically, actively, and pervasively removed from Singapore’s society.

Let’s be honest: sexuality and gender are complex topics. 

But fret not, for we’re here to help. We’ve done the research, and compiled this huge list of LGBTQ-related words and concepts to help answer the most common questions you might have about sexuality and gender. 

Transphobia refers to a prejudice, hatred, or hostility towards transgender people. Some prefer the term “cissexism” to “transphobia”, because the latter can seem to justify acts of hostility by using the excuse of “the fear of the unknown”.

The term “transition” is an umbrella term that refers to processes where a trans individual moves from one gender presentation to another.

There are 3 broad aspects to this. A trans individual may transition in any combination, or none at all.

A transgender person's gender identity and/or gender expression differs from the sex they were assigned at birth. This includes people who identify with multiple genders, no gender, or genders outside the man/woman binary. Not all transgender people choose to undergo medical transition.

A trans woman is short for a transgender woman, and refers to a person whose gender identity and/or gender expression is that of a woman, but was assigned the male sex at birth.

A trans man is short for a transgender man, and refers to a person whose gender identity and/or gender expression is that of a man, but was assigned the female sex at birth.

This set of pronouns is traditionally used to refer to groups of people (plural). However, these pronouns are increasingly used as gender neutral pronouns to refer to a single person (singular).