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Pink Dot Sg is a non-profit movement started by a group of individuals who care deeply about the place that LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) have in Singapore. In their annual event held in Hong Lim Park since 2009, Pink Dot brought together people who believe that everyone deserves the freedom to love.

The event which attracted 2,500 participants in 2009 had grown substantially to attract 28,000 supporters to its event in its 6th year. Many corporate sponsors too have thrown their weight behind the organisers of the event.

The movement is not without its detractors. Last year, a grounds-up movement consisting mainly of fundamentalist Christians and Muslim spoke up against Pink Dot. The movement led by prominent religious figures like Reverend Lawrence Khong, senior pastor of Faith Community Baptist Church, started the ‘Wear White’ campaign to counter Pink Dot.

Last year, the Pink Dot movement expressed its disappointment with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s views on same sex marriage, and invited him to attend their event at Hong Lim Park to “meet with the individuals, families, and loving couples who form a vibrant part of Singapore’s social fabric.”

In announcing their event scheduled for 4 June 2016, Pink Dot said that it got massive support from a record number of Corporate Sponsors for the event this year. Pink Dot Sg also revealed their event ambassadors for this year. They further released a video clip titled ‘Pink Dot 2016: Our Heroes’. The persons featured in the video are Joan and Pastor Pauline Ong of Free Community Church.

Pauline’s profile is presented as such in her church’s website:

“Pauline grew up learning about God while she was attending a mission school. She was drawn to this loving God but she struggled to reconcile her spirituality and sexuality because she was sure God could never accept someone who was gay. But God reached out to her in a special way when she was 19 and that personal encounter changed her life.”

Joan expressed in Pink Dot’s promotional video that she is a ‘straight ally’ of the pink dot movement.

[fvplayer src=”http://youtube.com/watch?v=EH4u83aBDsE”]A pastor has now taken issue with Pink Dot Sg’s promotional video which espouses that sex need not be reserved for the intimacy within marriage of a man and woman. Yang Tuck Yoong, senior pastor of Community Church, has said in a blog post that the video is “deceptive for untaught people watching it.”

“Let me put it in simple and unambiguous terms: A homosexual Christian is an oxymoron. You cannot live a lifestyle that the Bible condemns and say you’re a believer in Jesus Christ at the same time,” he said.

He claims that although the claims in the video were ‘deceptive’, it was purposely used as a”strategy” by the Pink Dot Sg movement, who are advocating for cultural acceptance and normalisation of non-heterosexual orientations and relationships.

“They say “we’re Christians too and this is what we believe.” But please read your Bible and don’t misquote it. I assure you that a practicing homosexual will not see the insides of heaven if they continue down this path,” Yang said.

“Any attempt to change God’s definition of what constitutes a true marriage will lead to a disastrous path of fatherless-ness or motherless-ness, and we’re now witnessing the fruit of this malady in our generation,” he added.

A police report was lodged against Yang last year for writing a blogpost titled ‘Firing the First Salvo’. In the post he called for the church to take up “battle footing and be battle ready” so it could deal with “the LGBT issue”.

Yang later changed the title of his article to ‘Times and Seasons’ and removed all references to LGBT people.

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This article was edited after it was published. We had earlier referred to Joan as a ‘lesbian’. We apologise for the error.