Follower Fridays is a series of profiles highlighting members of Gaysian Third Space to showcase the diversity of gaysians in the Community. This week’s featured member is @jefferyhaj.

Who are you?

Jeffery, a 21 year old Australian born Chinese. I’m your typical happy-go-lucky go who tries not to takes things too seriously but if someone rubs me the wrong way, I can also be your worst nightmare. Just kidding…kind-of.

Where are you from?

From the land down under where we ride kangaroos to school, Melbourne Australia. However, I did grow up in Singapore and moved back when I was 10, so I’ve spent about half of my life in both countries. Strangely enough, a lot of people assume I’m from Hong Kong so there’s that too.

What do you do?

I’m in my final year of my Bachelor of Science, majoring in Neuroscience and am pursuing my “Doctor of Physiotherapy” degree next year. I work in University Services and enjoy activities like dancing and reading in my spare time.

What are you passionate about?

For everything and anything related to health sciences, my family, friends and partner. I’m passionate about advocating for “controversial” topics that shouldn’t be controversial in the first place (e.g. marriage equality). It also fascinates me when new discoveries are made and I love keeping up with what’s happening around the world. To sum it up, I’m a curious student, informed teacher, avid traveler and passionate lover.



What is your dream job (real or fantasy)?

Being quite a versatile person, I’ve always wanted to pursue a range of different jobs, from acting to teaching to my current goal, Physiotherapist. It’d be ideal if I could open up my own practice, where there will be a range of other health practitioners (e.g. psychologists, audiologists, speech pathologists) in one convenient location - that’s my end goal. Through this, I hope to be able to raise more awareness about stigmatized issues (e.g. mental health, sexual health) in my community through my own platform - may it be through offering free information sessions, consultations or something as simple as giving out information booklets.

If you could change the world with one idea, what would it be?

Factual information. To teach and for others to learn to make informed decisions. A lot of the hate we see these days comes from misunderstandings and assumptions - where “assume makes an ass out of u and me”. If people were more well informed then there wouldn’t be pointless “controversial” issue on topics like marriage equality, vaccinations, sexism, racism, religious wars, homophobia and etc. A lot of the hate stems from misinformed individuals who were raised to think that way. Perhaps it may be their “nature” but I believe in nurture over nature and if people understood the facts and were informed about these topics then there’s a better chance they wouldn’t act the way they do now.