Singapore is
famed as the clean and efficient Garden City of the Far East. With
a post-independence history of only 40 years, Singapore has rapidly
risen to become a global economic force to be reckoned with. Yet like
most young, modern cities struggling to find their identity, Singapore
is caught between the cultural heritage of its ancestral past and
the shifting values of modernity. To impose social stability amidst
these changing times, the Singapore government often invokes a nebulous
set of “Asian values”, rewarding those who exemplify them,
and marginalising those who do not. Transsexuals fall into the latter
category.
Back in the 1960s when the British, American and Australian sailors
made Singapore their port of call, the country was infamous for its
transvestite and transsexual prostitutes who flourished in Bugis Street.
Still finding its feet, Singapore society was a lot more tolerant
then. Following the urban redevelopment of Bugis Street in the mid
1980s, the transgender community was gradually purged from the scene.
In 1987, the Singapore government ceased all sex change operations
at Mount Elizabeth Hospital, and quietly discouraged the operations
at the only centre offering them then- the Gender Identity Clinic
at the National University Hospital (which closed down in 2001, only
to be resurrected in 2003).
Since the late 1980s, the government and media have embarked on a
witch-hunt of transsexuals in Singapore, linking them to prostitution
and the spread of HIV/AIDS. Transsexualism became a taboo subject
in Singapore. Most transsexuals went about their lives quietly post-surgery;
the more “successful” married foreign men and started
new lives overseas. A new generation of transgender prostitutes found
their niche at the Changi Village open-air carpark, in the easternmost
part of Singapore, which has now become infamous for blow jobs and
quickies delivered by “beautiful women who are actually men”.
The Singapore government has largely left them alone, just as it tacitly
acknowledges Geylang as the country’s prostitution belt.
Over the past 40 years transsexualism has been imprinted on Singapore’s
national psyche as a phenomenon of sexual deviants living on the fringe
of society as prostitutes and occasionally thieves who spike the drinks
of unsuspecting white tourists to empty their wallets. The local media
have not helped by sensationalising the already downtrodden lives
of transgender prostitutes. But all is not lost. Running parallel
to these developments are anecdotal accounts of post-operative transsexuals
educated to tertiary level who find executive-level jobs and who get
married and adopt children. They appear to be the silent majority.
The issue of transsexual rights rose to the fore in the mid 1990s
after a landmark case in which a woman sought and won the annulment
of her marriage to a transman (Lim Ying v Hiok Kian Ming Eric). In
1996, a bill was presented before Parliament and the Women’s
Charter was amended to validate the marriage between “a person
who has undergone a sex re-assignment procedure and any person of
the opposite sex”. Transsexuals were officially granted their
wish, ahead of their British counterparts, on 26 January 1996.
Set against this complex social context, From Leonard to Leona: A Singapore transsexual’s journey to womanhood
chronicles Leona Lo’s life experiences from childhood through
to adolescence and adulthood. Growing up in a traditional Chinese
middle-class family meant that Leona had to suppress her gender identity
conflict throughout her adolescent years until she felt she could
not live a lie anymore. A series of major incidents during compulsory
military service and her tertiary education at York University, United
Kingdom led to her life-changing decision to go to Bangkok for sexual
reassignment surgery without the knowledge of her family and friends.
The euphoria of her new identity is short-lived and quickly gives
way to the daily pressures of life. Leona discovers that the path
to love and social integration is fraught with disappointments as
transsexuals are still largely misunderstood. Through it all she emerges
with a new consciousness of self and a determination to promote awareness
of healthcare issues, in particular, the transsexual condition through
her integrated communications company Talk Sense, which she founded
in 2005. She continues to champion the universal right of every individual,
transsexual or otherwise, to hope and dream big. Her greatest ambition
is to be a loving wife and mother.
From Leonard to
Leona: A Singapore transsexual’s journey to womanhood
is an emotional, heartfelt autobiography which celebrates every individual’s
right to be, and touches on the universal themes of acceptance and
rejection (both by the society and self), rebirth and renewal, and
the perennial tug-of-war between the individual and society. Following
the publication of My Sisters, Their Stories, Leona’s
story was reported on locally, regionally (most recently, in the Malaysian
newspaper The Star) and internationally (most notably, BBC and on
www.lynnconway.com as a Singapore transsexual success story). Leona’s
story transgresses the globe both thematically and geographically
(spanning her university days in England and travel history in Europe).
These factors help to render her story appealing to an international
audience, especially since this is the first time that a transsexual
authorial voice has emerged from Singapore.
In 2007, Leona kickstarted a series of motivational talks entitled,
"Dare to be me: breaking free of the culture of shame. A Singapore
transsexual woman speaks", which she hopes to export internationally
to coincide with the publication of her book. She is confident she
will find a keen international audience for her talks. During her
university days at York, she “performed” transsexual angst
to a student and staff audience to critical acclaim, and received
the York Trust Settlement Prize for promoting transgender awareness.
In conjunction with
the publication of her book, Leona will be the first personality to
be featured on world-famous royal astrologer Roy Rudgee’s website
at www.royalastrologers.com
when it is officially launched in May 2007. Mr Rugdee’s clients
are world-renowned personalities who include celebrities and power
figures such as prominent businessmen and politicians.
