- Photo © Shawn Danker
I was deeply honoured to be invited to speak at the Community Voices segment at Pink Dot on 28 June 2014 at Hong Lim Park, & this is what I said:
My name is Yangfa & I stand before you as a proud gay man, a proud social worker & a very proud uncle of 5 wonderful nieces.
I know life can be hard if you’re different.
If you’re too tall or too fat. If you have a single parent or a disability.
If you’re left-handed or transgender or gay or bi.
And life can be even harder if you’re different & you’re still in school. And you get bullied. Because there are bullies everywhere.
They are in Russia & in Singapore.
They’re in our classrooms & in our parliament.
They can even be online & onstage performing magic tricks in Chai Chee!
But WE are also everywhere.
If you’re gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning & getting bullied, just look around: You are not alone.
And for all of us, please speak up & stand up to bullies. Call them out for the cowards they really are.
Their homophobia & transphobia will crumble when we speak up.
As the great Harvey Milk reminded us: “Hope will never be silent.”
We will survive all this!
