Singapore: LGBTI activist banned from giving TEDx talk

The night before Rachel Yeo was due to deliver a TEDx talk, organizers told her she’d been taken off the schedule.

TEDTalks and their various offshoots are a worldwide phenomenon. People from different background deliver short speeches on their areas of expertise or life experience.

Friday’s session was a TEDxYouth at St Joseph’s Instititute (SJI) – a Catholic school in Singapore. The theme of TEDXYouth@SJI 2018 was ‘Chrysalis’.

‘Through TEDxYouth@SJI 2018, we are bringing the intimate experience of sharing a love for learning more about the world we live in to a smaller community,’ organizers said ahead of the event.

Yeo is the Research and Advocacy Director at Singapore’s Inter-University LGBT Network (IULN). SJI had invited her to speak about her interest in LGBTI issues.

But just hours before she was due to hit the stage SJI told her she would no longer be speaking. SJI cited Ministry of Education’s (MOE) ‘regulations’ for taking her off the speakers’ list. SJI said the decision ‘beyond our control’. Read more via Gay Star News