Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam was first among 27 Singaporean politicians ranked for their positions on LGBT matters in a scorecard published yesterday by advocacy group Sayoni.
Shanmugam earned a full score of 5 and an “A” grade while, at the opposite end of the spectrum, fellow People’s Action Party member Vivian Balakrishnan scored a -4 score and an “F” grade in the assessment conducted by the group advocating for queer women’s rights.
Falling shortly behind Shanmugam were Singapore’s 10th Parliament Speaker Tan Chuan-Jin and Reform Party chief Kenneth Jeyaretnam.
“We researched LGBTQ-related statements made by politicians, in Parliamentary Hansard records, social media, mainstream and independent news, from 2011 to 2020. Over 100 politicians were emailed for comments or updates on their position(s), and graded according to their engagement with LGBTQ issues,” Sayoni wrote.
The Rainbow Scorecard: Review of the Decade report was based on data, including public statements, from the past 10 years. Sayoni said they also reached out to the politicians recently to verify their stands before assigning them grades of A to F based on several criteria, and scores of -4 to 5 for their overall performance.
Others graded “F” included Nee Soon MP Lee Bee Wah, Workers’ Party member Muhamad Faisal bin Abdul Manap and the People’s Power Party leaders Syafarin Sarif and Goh Meng Seng.
Sayoni said it chose to rank only candidates with stated positions.
“Our research found that only 35 politicians have made statements on LGBTQ issues in the past. Out of the 35 politicians who have made statements on LGBTQ issues, 8 made statements that we consider to be “fence-sitting”, the report said, noting that politicians who made no positions weren’t ranked.
The ranking only covered current or former elected officials. No unelected candidates expected to contest the recently announced election next month were included.
That led to some complaining that, given the ruling party’s grip on government, it was overrepresented in the report.
“When one party has the overwhelming majority of seats, it’s easy to let a few politicians play good cop,” Facebooker Charles Sng wrote in reply.
The politicos were graded based on four criteria: engagement with LGBTQ groups, affirmative inclusion of their issues, advocacy for non-discrimination/non-violence toward the community, and demonstrating awareness of LGBTQ-specific challenges.
Each criterion was scored according to whether they provided positive, partial support, acted negatively, or did not explicitly show any support.
Even Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was not spared in the report, scoring a -1 and receiving a “D” grade. The report said he failed to advocate against discrimination and violence toward the LGBTQ community and did not demonstrate awareness of the specific challenges it faces.
The advocacy group expressed hope that its report card would encourage the LGBT community to speak out more and make informed decisions when they go to the polls July 10.
“We encourage all to engage in active citizenry: be it writing to your MP and urging them to speak up on LGBTQ issues, or calling out bigotry in the workplace, with friends or family,” it wrote.
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