The 10-minute video features some 20 members of the gay community including theatre director Loretta Chen; Roy Tan, co-organiser of Pink Dot; Bryan Choong, Centre Manager of Oogachaga, a gay and lesbian affirmative counselling agency in Singapore; and Gea Swee Jean who appeared in Women who Love Women and co-organiser of Women's Nite, a group for lesbian, bisexual and questioning women.
The director of the video Otto Fong, a former teacher who resigned from his teaching job to become a full time author and illustrator of the Sir Fong series of edutainment comic books, told Fridae that he and his friends were inspired by the Trevor Project that started in America and hopes for the video to make a difference to local LGBT youths.
"It would make a very nice present to our youths – we never had anything like this when we were growing up. So, a few days of our time before Christmas in exchange for some smiles and comfort is totally worth it!"
He added: "When I announced the project on Facebook, a few people volunteered immediately. I even posted a notice on the Sgbutterfly Forum for Transgender people to speak, but I'm open to making a video with whoever offers – if it wasn't perfect, it can even inspire others to do a better one. A friend who couldn't speak gave me a whole bunch of keychains to give to the participants as a token of his own thanks to them. Ultimately, thanks to Eileena, we were able to find a good mix of guys and girls. Desmond, the Eurasian man in the video, told his partner Onn, 'you can consider doing the video together, but I really want to do this!'
"I insisted on shooting outdoors in a HDB [public housing] estate. I want people to see that we're ordinary folks out and about in Singapore. So while the background noise was there, I think the sharings are powerful and candid enough to deliver our message."