Not thinking straight : transgender individuals and compulsory heterosexuality in Singapore

• Main Author: M Priyanka Nair
• Other Authors: Sun Hsiao-Li Shirley
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/66176
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Singapore has a strong ideology of compulsory heterosexuality that manifests itself as systematic violence against transgender individuals. As such, transgender individuals need to negotiate their gender identity and perform their gender according to the various institutions that they engage with. This is something that cisgender individuals do not need to pay as much attention to because the sex and genders match. Each institution has been influenced to some extent to maintain compulsory heterosexuality and this becomes clear in analyzing how much freedom or restriction transgender individuals have to express their gender identity. This research also looks at how systematic violence that is covertly influenced by compulsory heterosexuality then reproduces institutional discrimination against transgender individuals. This then affects their ability to lead their lives as cisgender individuals do and to even be able to plan for a socially-deemed successful future. This research aims to answer the question of how the characteristics of Singapore society affect the experiences of transgender individuals.