Being gay at work : analyzing the 'politics of coming out' of Singapore gay men at their workplaces

• Main Author: Siew, Nicholas Sheng Ren
• Other Authors: School of Humanities and Social Sciences
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/55824
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This paper aims to study the process and experience of Singaporean gay men coming out at their workplace. By analyzing the ‘politics of coming out’ at work, this study seeks to elicit the motivations that influence them to come out at work, the experiences they faced at the point of disclosing their sexuality and the aftermath of coming out. Key findings and implications suggest that the coming out process of Singaporean gay men at work can be perceived as empowering and they can be seen as conscious actors managing and leveraging their (homo) sexuality to achieve strategic ends. Also, it points that Singaporean gay men are not necessarily passive and they possessed agency to reject stereotypes imposed on them at work. Yet their ability to do so depends largely on their occupational position. Lastly, the research implies that Singapore workplaces are relatively benign for gay men to work in.