Singapore’s LGBTIQ+ community has vowed to forge ahead with the online version of this year’s Pink Dot event despite opposition from family groups.

Since it first began in 2009, Pink Dot has attracted larger crowd each successive year with over 28,000 people gathering in Hong Lim Park to shine a pink torch lights into the air as a call for LGBTI rights in the island nation. In recent years the event has been moved to the day time and foreigners have been banned from attending, and multi-national companies have been prohibited from sponsoring the event.

Like many events around the world, COVID-19 has seen the event adjusted to an online delivery and organisers are planning a live-streamed special event to mark the occasion.

“We hope that through our livestream, the LGBTQ community can feel seen, heard and loved during these rough times,” Pink Dot spokespeople told Reuters.

“It is our way of being there for one another.”

The digital event sparked a Change.org petition with almost 30,000 signatures demanding restrictions on the event, calling the Pride celebration “immoral.”

The petition was launched by parents who said they were deeply troubled by their children being exposed to “homosexuality as a lifestyle.”

LGBTIQ+ advocacy group Oogachaga spokesperson Leow Yangfa said the petition was unkind and uncharitable “in an inclusive, diverse society like Singapore.”

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