Baby Queen

Opera Tang was born two years ago. With her looks inspired by traditional Chinese opera, this drag queen is the talk of Singapore town. Chronicling her glittering performances and her private life – particularly her relationship with her 90-year-old grandmother – director LEI Yuan Bin paints a tender portrait of this iridescent character. The film reflects on the struggle to abolish section 377A of the penal code that prohibits sex between men, under the threat of imprisonment. Whilst the law was repealed, the government took the opportunity to reaffirm the highly restrictive framework around access to marriage, reserved for binary couples. Based on a specific story and context, Baby Queen deploys a generous universal discourse, coherently denouncing institutional and everyday homophobia, stigmatisation and the violence of coming out, while forcefully arguing for each person’s right to intimacy, love and self-acceptance. The film pays homage to the significant yet unsteady progress of LGBTQIA+ rights in the City-State, while demonstrating how societies can sometimes progress faster than governments.

Bastien Bento