Gay men defy Singapore censors and kiss during live news broadcast
Singapore censors LGBTQ content and gay sex is illegal, which meant the kiss quickly went viral
A viral gay kiss has refueled debate over Singapore’s outdated anti-LGBTQ censorship laws.
While censors in the Southeast Asian country have banned LGBTQ content, multinational news channel Channel News Asia (CNA) unintentionally broadcast a passionate gay kiss to viewers in Singapore while covering the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Earlier this month, a CNA journalist was broadcasting live from a bar in Beijing, reporting on fans eager to watch the Olympic Games.
In the background, two gay men walk past the camera, before coming back into frame and passionately kissing behind the reporter.
One of the men then strikes a fabulous pose, looking straight into the camera, before walking out of view.
Singapore has strict laws regarding what can be broadcast on television, including limiting depictions of LGBTQ “lifestyles,” which are banned alongside pedophilia and incest.
Singapore also has few legal rights or protections for LGBTQ people. Same-sex relations between men are illegal and the country lacks any nondiscrimination laws for sexuality or gender identity.
As such, footage of two men kissing on live TV, out of reach of the country’s censors, quickly led to video of the kiss going viral.
A TikTok video showing the kiss has amassed more than 1.5 million views. It also went viral on Chinese social media site Weibo, The Guardian reports.
“This is actually an act of revolution,” one person commented.
@starrie7777 they can’t censor the ending pose 😍🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🌈#singapore #channelnewsasia #cna #lgbt #lgbtq #gay #gaykiss #slay #beijing2022 #winterolympics ♬ Unstoppable – Sia
Commenters also celebrated the man who struck a pose at the end of the clip, with one person writing, “He knew what he was doing and I’m living for it.”
“He’s like ‘let me have the honor to make history for the LGBTQ community,'” another wrote.
“We don’t know who this guy is, of course, so we don’t know if he knew they were kissing for CNA specifically or just a camera in general,” Kaleidoscope NTU, an LGBTQ group, told the Guardian.
“But the defiance of it, the joy that comes with being able to show off your partner and the confidence in getting to be yourself as well, the combination would have naturally spoken to a lot of queer people within the country as well.”
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