ABSTRACT
In September 2010, Yale University – popularly known as the “Gay Ivy” – was mired in controversy when it announced a proposed collaboration with the National University of Singapore (NUS) to set up Yale-NUS College, a joint liberal arts college in Singapore. Far from being “gay-friendly” like Yale is known to be, Singapore criminalises “gross indecency” between men under Section 377A of its Penal Code and actively censors any positive portrayal of homosexuality in the media. Despite fears that queerness would be suppressed at the Yale-NUS campus, a queer and feminist student advocacy group, The G Spot, was set up even before classes began. This development was extraordinary not only because of the subjugation of queer subjects in Singapore but also the fact that campus activism had all but disappeared from Singapore universities since the late 1970s. This chapter traces the emergence of both the possibility and reality of queer student activism after the establishment of Yale-NUS College before delving into the strategies employed by queer student activists to negotiate and realise this possibility across local and transnational contexts. This account of queer student activism in Singapore thus offers valuable insight into how the globalisation of higher education interacts with local contexts to influence queer movements and strategies.
