In March of this year the leadership of AWARE, the oldest and most respected women's advocacy group in Singapore, was ousted in a hostile takeover by Christian fundamentalists. A reader of towleroad.com writes:
"I'm writing to to ask for support as well as to highlight a situation that is unfolding rather dramatically in the island nation of Singapore. It involves a hostile takeover of a women's advocate group by Christian fundamentalists linked with [US-based] Focus on the Family who have been actively and successfully preventing any progression of basic gay and women's rights in Singapore. Earlier in March, Singapore’s most prominent, oldest and only women’s advocate group, AWARE, held their Annual General Meeting. Members were to vote and elect a new executive board. It turned out to be a hostile takeover. The group essentially organized supporters of their cause (through church links) to oust long serving members of the group from the executive committee. They did this by getting people who had previously no interest in AWARE's activities to sign up as members sympathetic to the fundamentalist rhetoric right before the elections were to be held. The old executive committee had no idea what hit them until the election was well under way."
On Fridae, a news and feature site with the tag line: Empowering Gay Asia, they report on AWARE's tumultuous general meeting on May 2 which was over 7 hours in length and ended with cheers and applause as the anti-gay leaders (who a few months ago hijacked the group) read their letter of resignation. After a losing a vote of no confidence 1414-761.
After the antigay leaders were ousted, they were replaced by a diverse group of leaders of varied ages, backgrounds, race, and religions.
A clip of some of the comments when the meeting was opened to the floor: