Contrary to what others might perceive, Bryan Choong considers himself an introvert who enjoys most activities alone. During the lockdown, for example, he took up cycling and explored Singapore even more.
He also likes swimming because it calms him down and gives him time and space to reflect. On the entertainment front, he enjoys crime thrillers and zombie series on Netflix because they spark his interest in human psychology.
Despite his introverted nature, Mr Choong is always willing to leave his comfort zone to volunteer and has worked with many organisations and social causes since he was in his 20s.
Volunteering, he says, allows him to learn new skills and expand his knowledge and understanding of issues. It is a form of political and social involvement that anyone can be part of, he stresses.
"I think being involved in something directly is a really empowering experience. Whatever the outcome, I have played an active role in shaping it, instead of me expecting someone else to do it," the Singaporean activist points out.
Those experiences coupled with his education -- he holds master's degrees in public health and counselling -- have helped Mr Choong fill a role as an advocate for health issues for the LGBTQI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex) communities in Singapore for more than 15 years.
He was recently elected as the new chairman of the regional advisory group of Apcom, a Bangkok-based not-for-profit organisation that focuses on health issues for gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM). It represents and works with individuals and community-based organisations across 35 countries in Asia and the Pacific
"My previous professional work was in counselling and I headed Oogachaga, which is a community-based LGBTQI organisation in Singapore," Mr Choong tells Asia Focus. "I also designed and implemented social programmes to improve the psychosocial wellbeing of LGBTQI communities."
He believes in empowering, mobilising and tapping the knowledge and experiences of community members to address social issues.
"The knowledge and understanding of the needs in the communities have allowed me to expand my work to provide professional training of healthcare and social service professionals in Singapore and the region," he says.
Mr Choong was one of three activists who recently went before Singapore's highest court to challenge the law that criminalises sex between men in the city-state. The Court of Appeal last week dismissed the challenge, ruling that since authorities did not enforce the decades-old law, it did not breach the plaintiffs' constitutional rights.
From the beginning, Mr Choong says his mother has been the best role model, sparking his interest in volunteering and getting involved in community work. With little formal education growing up, she built her knowledge and skills through years of hard work and perseverance.
"If you want something to change, get involved and do something," he says, echoing his mother's life philosophy.
He is not the type of person who lives with regrets. In spite of the hardships facing him as a teen, he has been fortunate to have support from his family and friends, and this allowed him to try many different things.
"I often make decisions based on what information I have, and I learn to live with the outcomes arising from these decisions. They are mostly positive outcomes," he remarks. He sees his new role at Apcom "as a positive way that I can contribute, and a wonderful opportunity for me to learn new things".
Bryan Choong, chair of the regional advisory group, Apcom (Asia Pacific Coalition on Male Sexual Health) SUPPLIED
INTO THE FUTURE
As the core governance body of Apcom (Asia Pacific Coalition on Male Sexual Health), the regional advisory group sets out and approves the overall strategic direction to ensure the organisation's vision and mission are achieved.
"As Apcom moves further into its second decade, we hope to see continued innovative programmes to reduce new HIV infections, end Aids and create an enabling environment for gay men, other MSM, and diverse Sogiesc (sexual orientation, gender identity and expression and sex characteristics) people in Asia and the Pacific to achieve better rights, health and well-being," Mr Choong was quoted as saying on the Apcom website earlier this year.
The regional advisory group, he says, also monitors and evaluates the effectiveness of Apcom in reaching its organisational vision and mission through a regular review of the strategy, programmatic results and impact.
As chair of the group, he oversees Apcom's transparency and accountability as a registered foundation in Thailand by delivering timely reports and audits to the government, and acts as a sounding board for the executive director and management team.
The group members have very diverse backgrounds, experiences and expertise. They have been directly involved in LGBTQ, HIV and community health-related work, either in their own countries or the region. They are from or based in China, Fiji, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
Members also have various technical skills that will contribute positively to Apcom's regional work: programme design and implementation; programme monitoring and evaluation; organisational development; human resource management and resource mobilisation, among others.
There are altogether six members, with Mr Choong as the chair, a vice-chair, and four other members, with the executive director as an ex-officio.
"I am privileged to have had the opportunity to work in both non-governmental organisations and social enterprise settings and gain opportunities to hone my skills," he says. "I can use my experience in delivering counselling and public health projects in the programmes and services managed by Apcom."
Apcom has built many strong bridges with partners in South and Southeast Asian countries and will continue to do so. There are also many opportunities for it to broaden collaborations in subregions such as the Pacific and East Asia.
Mr Choong acknowledges that HIV will continue to take centre stage in Apcom's work as it celebrates its 15th anniversary this year. He is looking to strengthen the organisation's work on related issues such as sexual health, mental health and drug use issues facing LGBTQI communities.
"Mental health issues faced by the communities are exacerbated by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, and Apcom is now working on it more extensively and intentionally," he acknowledges.
He and the regional advisory group members will be working with the Bangkok-based secretariat team's "passionate and dedicated" members to identify opportunities for learning and development so that the whole team is more equipped and supported as they move forward in their next decade of work. "I look forward to meeting our NGO partners and stakeholders in the coming months. And hopefully there will be less travel restrictions so that I can meet the Apcom secretariat team in person really soon," he notes.
EXPANDED SCOPE
In its 15 years, Apcom has become widely known for its innovation and advocacy work, and during the pandemic it built a stronger online presence to sustain its connection to the community in countries in the region.
Under Mr Choong's leadership, Apcom will need to expand its partnership to the private sector and work more closely with the governments in the region, as some "not so positive" trends in the region are emerging, with spaces for civil society and financial support starting to shrink.
Apcom's scope is expanding to areas such as economic inclusion, by working with the Asian Development Bank; coordinating the marriage equality movement, and LGBTQI mental health, which he thinks is exciting. Mr Choong also hopes to do more work on decriminalisation in the region as 15 countries still criminalise homosexuality.
"As we are working toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and leaving no one behind, we have to work even harder to ensure sustainability of vital work done by the community to ensure they are empowered to tackle issues of inequity and inequality so that we can realise our motto: 'Equity. Dignity. Social Justice'," he says.
To achieve such goals, Apcom must continue to do what it does best, including forming partnerships and networks, building the capacity of NGOs, empowering community involvement, enabling resource mobilisation and supporting the development of evidence-based interventions, he explains.
Apcom, he adds, will continue to take an active role in international and regional-level partnerships to ensure that the needs and voices of LGBTQI people in the region are represented.
Midnight Poonkasetwattana, the executive director of Apcom, was recently appointed as the Asia Pacific civil society representative on the UNAids Programme Coordinating Board.
Apcom strongly believes that being committed to HIV-related work in the region remains a priority. However, there are many other issues faced by LGBTQI communities, such as mental health, rights to access public goods and services, rights to freedom of speech and expression, Mr Choong reiterates.
Like many others, he has faced discrimination and inequality issues firsthand, but has found the courage to overcome them.
He recalled one momentous development in 2014 when a public health agency in Singapore produced an article titled "FAQs on Sexuality" that was refreshingly positive and inclusive in its tone.
The article immediately triggered a backlash from more conservative groups in Singapore. Two online petitions emerged -- one calling for the article to be removed and the other requesting that it be retained.
In the article, Oogachaga and some other LGBTQI-affirmative organisations were listed as resources, which antagonised many individuals from the conservative group. As a result, Oogachaga and Mr Choong were the targets of hateful comments. The article was, however, left largely intact and remained available for many years, he says.
"That remained one of the few instances where a public health agency put up an LGBTQI-affirmative article in Singapore," he says. "The incident was one of the three major cultural clashes between the more conservative segments and segments who are advocating for a more accepting and open Singapore society.
"It was a stark warning about why we have to do what we are doing as activists, advocates for community workers -- whichever label works best for you. And why working in the trenches can be such a powerful thing to do," he adds.
Although it's been eight years, he still recollects a comment made by a young lesbian via the online petition. He cited her statement, saying the "FAQs on Sexuality" was the best thing that had happened for her because it was an acknowledgement of her as part of Singaporean society.
But even today, LGBTQI individuals still facing barriers in accessing many services in general. As such, NGOs need to expand and diversify their scope of work so that they can address these issues more comprehensively.
"It is unrealistic to expect NGOs to step up and provide these services because it is resource-intensive and quite counterproductive to promote wider social and legal recognition and protection of the LGBTQI communities," Mr Choong says.
"It is more sustainable to enhance the technical skills and knowledge of NGOs in specific areas, and build their capacity to engage, involve and empower other stakeholders such as service providers, government agencies, public institutions and corporate partners to play a more active role in creating positive changes for LGBTQI communities."
FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY
From a sustainability perspective, many NGOs are kept sustainable financially and operationally when the professional staff are able to mobilise the community, widen the scope of work and amplify their coverage.
In this aspect, Apcom will build the capacity of the NGOs so that they are capable of engaging, empowering and mobilising human resources and financial resources from the communities and individuals involved, other non-LGBTQI community organisations and corporate partners.
As for evidence-based interventions, Apcom has served as the mainstay to bring international agencies, national and local NGOs and researchers together to share best practices that are tested in many contexts and settings, and can be further adopted or adapted for the NGOs working in the region.
Where there are missing information gaps or emerging issues, Apcom will continue to take an active leading role in gathering the insights and evidence and disseminating them to its partners via its online platform called The Source, he confirms.
Asked what his ultimate goal is, Mr Choong says he hopes to set up a foundation that will provide funding and scholarships for LGBTQI activists so that they can take time out from their work and do self-care or enrich themselves.
"I had the precious opportunity to do that with the Chevening scholarship and I went away to study, and spend a lot of time with myself. I got the chance to reflect and reprioritise what is important, and what I can do for the LGBTQI communities," he says.
Mr Choong is very keen to learn in a more in-depth way about the strengths and needs of the LGBTQI communities in Asia-Pacific. For him, there are many human stories about resilience and hope, and inspiring activists he cannot wait to meet and hear.
