We are excited to announce the panelists for Hands UP! Read more about them below.
Otto Fong
Otto Fong stayed closeted as a teacher for 7 years before he finally came out publicly on a blog in 2007. Though he was allowed to continue teaching, he decided to leave subsequently to pursue a career in self-publishing. Otto has since given many interviews as a gay person, including the New Paper, Straits Times and Zao Bao and was the keynote speaker in the 2011 Pink Dot. He has also spoken at Google and the Interbank LGBT group, and was also featured in Fridae’s Safer Sex video campaign this year.
Otto will share about his experience both as a closeted and out gay teacher and his perspectives as a teacher on the experiences of LGBTQ students while he was a teacher. Read his coming out blog post here: http://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2007/09/toc-exclusive-otto-fongs-open-letter/
A/P Khoo is a faculty member at a local university and is also a proud mother of two gay sons. She co-founded SAFE Singapore, a support group for family and friends of LGBTQ indvidiuals. She was previously a board member of AWARE and volunteered at Action for AIDS.
A/P Khoo published a letter co-signed by 86 faculty members and students of NUS and Yale-NUS to the Straits Times on the disparaging comments of an NUS Malay Studies Professor towards LGBTQ people and drafted a letter of concern to the NUS Provost and the Straits Times. You can read the forum letter here: http://www.straitstimes.com/premium/forum-letters/story/sending-wrong-signal-tolerance-20140306