By 
Video, Pictures & Text by Kieran Cheang
Dear Gay People,
How many times do you choke at the truth? How many times do you spit out an excuse to explain certain events in your life? How many times do you become somebody that you’re not?
Regrettably, in the 2016 setting of Singapore, the answer is too many times. It’s stifling for individuals from the LGBT community to chase their dreams and be themselves at the same time. There’s a lot of struggle in living our authentic selves in a place where we must learn how to assimilate elements generally accepted by society in order to survive.
We are all born free. But freedom is a consequence too heavy for some to bear. So we make do with roughing out our edges to fit in, compromising our expression of truths in the process.
Inspired by the constant rejections faced by LGBTs, I made a video that represents the anxiety of fitting into difficult terrains of life. It draws similarities to the uneasiness of wearing a suit, going against the odds to find serenity in a forest, using the wig as an expression of differences.
At its core, this story is about blazing the most difficult trail of truth-living – to never stop short of finding the will to live despite having your face smashed by steel doors – to have the tenacity to swim against erratic waves across oceans, and make it.
Painful journeys will present a burning fire that may be out to reduce you to ashes. But like the phoenix, living and breathing your truth while blazing the arduous trail will revive you. The process is excruciating, but you will be ready to take the world by storm. You will become bolder.
I hope that by watching the video, it can inspire you to be your true self.
For those who feel like you’re an outcast, be proud of it because you have THE opportunity to create something beautiful, ONLY if you live your truths. DO NOT let yourself be that piece of puzzle that others cast away. DO NOT conform. Things get rough but at the end of the day, you will stand tall and lift your head high, in your favourite wig, and you will chase your dreams.
You can watch the video here.
Be transparent is directed and edited by Kieran Cheang, shot by Kevin Ng Jia Quan and featuring Of Methodist track ‘Glass Baptism’. Make up by Siti McNally
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Out Of The Closet: Ayden Constantine Shares His Story
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