Social consciousness is inter-connected

I have been following the AWARE saga closely. I am referring to the women civil organization has been hijacked by a group of Christian Right who are conservation and out to push their anti-gay agenda in AWARE.

In fact, a lot of gay men are fired up by what's happening at AWARE as well, and jumping in to support AWARE.

While that is good, what I suspect is that many gay men aren't really concerned about the women issues. The reason they are galvanizing behind AWARE is because the Christian Right is the number one group in Singapore that is propagating hatred and intolerance against the gay people.

I think gay people should be rightly concern about this. In fact, it should not just be the gay people -- everyone in the civil societies should be concerned. As much as we respect that there are always going to be people with different religious views, we cannot accept any religious group hijacking a non-sectarian organization to impose their religious views onto the multi-racial/multi-religious society in Singapore.

However, after dust is settled, I wonder if these gay men who jumped on the AWARE wagon would continue to care what about the issues women face. The truth is, many gay men speak and act as if women do not exists or do not matter (sometimes, not even their lesbian sisters). This is partly why there exists a gap between the gay men and gay women community which needs to be bridged. This is an issue that is somewhat recognized within the community and I know there are both gay men and women sincerely trying to bridge the gap. But I think the community needs to have a greater self-consciousness about this.

In fact, the indifference and apathy is restricted to the women issues. I have seen many gay people mock or ridicule other civic movements or civil societies as well. I am not saying gay people are more so that way than the general population. But I think it's more a case of gay people need to be more sensitive to the civic movement because we have a greater stake in it.

You see, I do believe that social consciousness is inter-connected.

A person with an awakened social consciousness is more likely to socially active, with a genuine care about what's going on and to the people around him/her, and more likely to be empathetic towards others regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, disability, class, or sexual identity.

I believe a person who cares about women issues, welfare of the foreign workers, disabled, animal cruelty, environmental issues, etc, are more like to be empathetic towards gay people.

Likewise, the really anti-gay people who are out to deprive any dignity and living space for the gay people are the same dogmatic people holding a moral high ground and trying to impose their views on other people, from issues ranging from anti-abortion and anti-gambling. (I recognise that there are many people who still can't accept homosexuality. But it's a different matter not accepting, versus going all out to demonise and propagate hatred and discrimiantion against the gay people.)

I am not an expert in this, but when I was living in USA, it was pointed out to me that the gay movement gained the most traction at the same time the feminist movement and the black movement was gaining traction as well. The biggest progress was made when these movements worked together.

At the end of the day, they are inter-related.

So I think gay people do need to be more supportive or concerned about the civic movement and various social issues. I am convinced that something like supporting a movement to promote kindness towards, say, a foreign worker, will come back as bringing more kindness and empathy for the gay people.

What I hope is that the AWARE saga will awake the social consciousness in many people and arouse a genuine concern of the issues affecting the society.