Queer in the home : negotiating state-sanctioned heteronormativity within the family

Abstract

In Singapore, the nation’s relationship with the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay. Bisexual and Transgender) community has become increasingly tumultuous over the past decade. From the state’s insistence on traditional values and heteronormativity to backlash from religious groups, this study explores the key social institution that has been at the centre of the conflict: the family. State-sanctioned heteronormativity has been found to perpetuate the deviance of non-normative sexualities and signposts morality for Singapore’s population. However, through drawing from relevant articles by The Straits Times from 2008 to 2017 as well as qualitative interviews with LGBT individuals and one of their respective family members, this study contends that exiles from kinship can be prevented through opening up the definitions of what a Singaporean family could be.