MHA reiterates ban on foreign companies' involvement in Pink Dot SG

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has released a press statement clarifying the government's stand on foreign companies involving themselves with the annual Pink Dot SG event. This is in response to media queries as to whether foreign companies can provide sponsorships for the Pink Dot event, held annually at the Speakers' Corner.MHA has strengthened its position against foreign entity involvement “domestic issues, especially political issues or controversial social issues with political overtones”, citing LGBT issues as one of these issues.According to the press statement, foreigners are not allowed to organise or speak at the events, or participate in demonstrations. In addition, MHA states that it will take steps to make it clear that foreign entities should not fund, support or influence such events held at the Speakers' Corner.“In the context of LGBT issues, this will apply both to events that advocate the LGBT cause such as the Pink Dot, as well as events whose purpose is to oppose the LGBT cause,” the press statement read.The recent Pink Dot SG event, which is in its eighth year, saw the doubling of corporate sponsors to 18 as opposed to nine last year, many of which are global brands such as Apple, Clifford Chance, Facebook, General Electric, Microsoft, NBCUniversal and Visa. Returning global sponsors for the annual rally were Google, Barclays, J. P. Morgan, The Gunnery, Goldman Sachs, BP, Bloomberg, and Twitter.There was also a marked increase in local brands and organisations showing their support for the cause, from one in 2015 to five this year. View the full media release from MHA here and Pink Dot SG's statement here.