Home, Truly: Private Property and the (re)Production of LGBT People in Singapore

The social consequences of private property and financialization are well explored, however, their relationship with LGBT sexualities is still under-researched. Across the globe, housing has undergone processes of financialization, giving rise to an asset-based welfare regime. This is also the case in Singapore. Even with its extremely high rates of public housing, homes have transcended their role as dwellings and have become a vehicle for the accumulation of surplus value through the emergence of the private rental sector. Whereas public homeownership has dominated research on housing in Singapore, this article turns to the private rental sector, which I argue becomes a site where young LGBT Singaporeans turn to because of heteronormative housing eligibility criteria and unsafe home environments. Based on visual ethnography, renting emerges as a site for profound LGBT embodiment and expression while subsuming bodies into processes of social reproduction. This article joins two historically conflicted areas: queer studies and critical political economy. Thus, queerness is enmeshed and entangled with private property, shedding light on how LGBT people respond to and are shaped by financial capitalism.