This post was originally published on murderiseverywhere.blogspot.com.
Happy 58th Birthday, Singapore!
I was going to write about how, in order to plough through the current draft of the current book, I missed all this year’s National Day get togethers and celebrations… but unfortunately for my attempt at self pity, I was reminded of Elle Woods wailing that in order to study for her LSATS she even blew off Greek Week…
Is anyone here old enough to remember Legally Blonde? The pretty pink and pretty feminist movie before Barbie came along?
[The fun scenes if you want to look them up: ‘Excuse me. Why didn’t you call me?’ ‘He’s Gay!’ (although it doesn’t really work because Enrique could be bi), ‘Elle Interrogates Chutney’]
But one thing I really loved in the show?
Elle gets her greatest triumph when she embraces who she is rather than covering it up. She’s back in a pink suit when she conducts her final cross examination (after toning herself down to fit into horrible Prof Callahan’s team) and she wins the case–thanks to her fashion knowledge.
The pink theme feels triumphantly relevant this year because this is the first National Day since Singapore was founded that it hasn’t been illegal to be gay in Singapore.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong mentioned the move to repeal Section 377A (a legacy of our British Colonial Masters) in his National Day Rally speech last year,
and on Dec 27, 2022 President Halimah Yacob assented to it being struck off the books.
Thank you President Halimah!
In one year we’ve gone from calls to:
to being an inclusive family, regardless of our differences:
It’s never too little and it’s never too late.
And we can all live together legally–and in pink.
