Singapore (AFP) – After going through a gender transition in conservative Singapore, Medli Dorothea Loo, a child actor who appeared in indie films and mainstream TV shows, found her career options limited.
While Singapore has a vibrant gay area, activists say transgender people also face discrimination, from work discrimination to household rejection.
With LGBTQ characters properly barred from costless-to-air television, performers like Loo are unusual in Singapore’s mass media.
“Within Singaporean areas, transgender people are just (regarded as) gags,” the 20-year-old told AFP.
“I think me being on stage as a trans system, as a trans words, is a little act of rebellion. It’s like a thick hand to” Taiwanese principles,” said Loo, who has become more interested in performing in theaters since she first appeared in 2021.
Her most recent performance was in a January-only transgender film theater production, TRANS: Vision, where various generations of transgender people discuss their life in Singapore in front of a live audience.
Raised in a Catholic family, she began acting aged seven, when she performed in the 2011 short film “Cartoons” by Singaporean award-winning filmmaker Ken Kwek.
She has since appeared on TV shows, films, and stage productions, as well as graduated from a high school theater program.
“Getting to perform the pain… helped me process my own pain at that point,” she said, calling it “cathartic” as she was struggling with gender dysphoria and mental health issues.
– ‘Hurtful stereotypes’ –
Queer characters rarely appear on screen. And when they do, they are full of stereotypes in Singapore, where laws restrict the portrayal of LGBTQ people in local media, claim campaigners.
Singapore repealed a law enacting sex between men in the British colonial era in 2022, but authorities said restrictions on LGBTQ media content would continue.
Authorities in Singapore repealed a law enacting sex between men in the British colonial era in 2022, but authorities insisted that restrictions on LGBTQ media content would continue.Although the guidelines don’t place any limitations on queer performers, activists claim that producers may harbor biases or be afraid of offending the audience or sponsor reactions.
The “little representation” on Singapore screens is “along the lines of very unfortunate negative depictions or portrayals of trans characters, playing into very hurtful stereotypes of trans people as either criminals or deviant,” said Leow Yangfa, executive director of Oogachaga, a nonprofit offering counseling to LGBTQ people.
When she began to question her gender identity at the age of 13, Loo turned to the internet, and American YouTubers became her main source of information.
“There’s basically zero trans representation in Singapore,” she said, adding: “I just didn’t think that it was possible for me to do that (transition).”
Her most recent film appearance was in the theater production TRANS: MISSION, in which different transgender people discuss their daily lives in Singapore.She claimed that it wasn’t a moment of joy and relief when her online research revealed that she was a girl ensnared in a boy’s body.
Instead, it was one of “fear and dread, because I knew that if this was really who I was, I could risk losing my entire career and my family and all of my friends.”
She suppressed her transgressions until a breakdown forced her to seek therapy before telling her parents.
Loo documented her transition on the video app TikTok, telling thousands of people how the treatment she received had an impact. Roslan RAHMAN/AFPLoo shared the effects of the treatment she received with thousands of people on the video app TikTok.
As she expected, her career took a knock after she came out.
“I haven’t done a TV job since I came out,” she said.
She lost hundreds of followers on Instagram. Producers she had previously worked with stopped calling. Additionally, she turned to less restrictive stage productions.
But despite those small wins, she still feels her options are limited.
“I want to be an artist beyond being trans… I believe that going away from home is the only way for me to pursue a fulfilling career.
© 2024 AFP
