ADLUS (Adventurers Like Us) was the first Singapore sports and outdoor activities network for gay men and lesbians. It was started by Kelvin Wong, who later handed over its management to Dr. Ethan Lim. Lim relinquished his leadership in 2009 and the group has been much less active since then, maintained by several volunteers. ADLUS had both a website [1] and an active mailing list [2]. The mailing list was the main communication hub for the network. The website was revamped in September 2006 to become more user-friendly. ADLUS activities encompassed many sporting activities and the group actively promotes sports and outdoor activities within the GLBT community. The website also listed major events in the Singapore sports scene. They were the network that helped send Singapore's first sports team to the Gay Olympics in Sydney, Australia.

History[]

Recollecting the history of Adlus - Founding and Early Years

28 December 2006

Kelvin Wong

ADLUS seems to be lacking a history somewhat. Whenever people ask about how ADLUS began, I always hear replies that goes something like this:

"Adlus was started in July 1999 by a bunch of gay adventurers who decided to form a sports group to promote sporting and outdoor activities in the GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trangender) community."

Just a bunch of gay adventurers? Sorry, I don't think just a simple bunch of gay people could have just came up with ADLUS, especially not back in 1999. Thus, without history, we don't know where we come from and sometimes, don't know where we need to go. So here, I intend to share a bit of its history, not get myself more fame or acknowledgement, but just a bit of history.

I first mooted the idea of forming a gay sports group to Ken Lau and if I am not wrong Teck Wah too, almost immediately after my first trip to Berkelah Falls back in 1998.

I had been physically active those years and had been doing some light hiking and outdoor activities with my friends at the SAFRA running club. I never thought I would enjoy outdoor activities so much, after all army does kill your appetite to going into the wilderness. At the same time, with the success of organising luncheons for fellow SiGNeLers, I also started to organise some cycling trips to Ubin. You can say that these Ubin cycling trips in SiGNeL are the precursors for ADLUS.

At the same time I met Ken, Zul, Teck Wah and some others who was much more active in outdoor activities than I was. I joined the Berkelah trip organised by Ken and Teck in 1998. It was extremely enjoyable, we could talk amongst ourselves, joke and basically you had a quality of enjoyment very much different from, say with a bunch of straight outdoor groupies. I knew instinctive that if I and my friends enjoyed it so much, others would be able to enjoy it as much as we did.

Yahoogroups was called Egroups then and it was one of those up and coming technology, with SiGNeL already moving to it from a private email list group. So I mooted the idea of setting up a gay sports and adventure group to Ken and Teck and invited them to become the first moderators.

I don't really know how I came up with the "adlus" name, I guess I was trying to splice adventure and plu into a name and "adlus" came about. It was a good name because it also sounded like the God Atlas, who signifies strength and perseverance to me, which I feel was what the gay community really needed at the time.

So we got our private emails and through IRC channels like GAM, broadcast this new group to everyone we know. Within 3 months, we had about 50 members! It was a rather good achievement for a new group.

Ken did most of the initiation of activities with this new group and with James Teng, Teck Wah, Nick Lum, Zul, Skeety, Superman and many others, the activities grew. So I must really thank Ken for most of the hard work during the founding times of ADLUS and although he went on a hiatus somewhere in the middle, I saw that he is back with a vengence! I continued my simple Ubin cycling trips as its what I know best and also because I was not as resourceful as the rest when it came to more complicated logistics.

Why did I think of setting up a gay sports group?

Around those times in 1999, there were not much gay groups around, especially not groups where people do sports together.

During those times, gay people were seriously stereotyped as weak, effeminate and something to be avoid, sometimes even within the gay community. But my own experiences tell me that this is not so at all. Anyway, so what if you are effeminate or weak? Thus, there was a need to counter the stereotype that gay people (esp. men) can only cry and whine over broken finger nails. It was necessary especially in the eyes of the gay community.

For those who enjoyed sports like me, but had to join straight groups, some may have to put up with the defensive and pretend to be straight, especially when it came to camp fires when people would chat away about their lives, girlfriends, wives and kids. What could the gay person share during these times?

More importantly, for sports and adventurous activities, hardship builds character and friendship bonds. Regular socialising in the pubs and clubs provides very little commonalities that could bond friends (of course, its possible too). Having to work together as a team, helping each other along the way and, especially, the suffering together in the same ordeal, usually makes a person show their true self, this either makes or breaks friendship. But more often than not, I believe that strong friendships are made.

Lastly, there has always been this issue, especially in the gay community, that only peoples of particular physique or even look can be a sports person. Gay people spend countless hours in the gym like a beauty parlour pruning their feathers to attract their mates. Its important to counter such stereotypes of who can be a sports person. I for one, despite my long distance running records with SAFRA running club does not have a body size of a typical runner, yet I consider myself one and so does my running mates. I think that is important the gay people understand this about their body and know it for themselves the abilities despite that mass media of materialism and beauty.

What did I want to achieve with ADLUS?

First and foremost, I wanted to propagate sporting activities within ADLUS as a alternative to other forms of activities, so that people have more choice of activities as a gay person.

And through sporting activities, that I hope that gay people can develop their self-confidence, self-reliance and be able to stand up for themselves. Only when gay people are more confident and willing stand up and be counted, can gay equality be advanced.

I also wanted to develop a sense of ownership in the group through volunteerism and developing leadership. This is what I think ADLUS scored the most in. When I handed over my role in ADLUS to my hapless friends a few years ago, albeit forcefully, I knew it was ready to run on its own… unlike, say, the Heartland group, which I run, its still a baby struggling on to stand up. And the torch has been passed along a few times and each time we see different type of energies emerging. Again, I hope that the objective of promoting volunteerism and developing talents and leadership in ADLUS continues. After all these are also the essential component to advance gay equality.

Of course, gay equality is not everything, its was also important for us to develop this idea of the responsible sports person and one with good sportsmanship. Good sportsmanship is the ability to lose happily and win in humility. Responsible means we are are responsible to the environment and the safety of ourselves and others through sports. We don't take unnecessarily risks during sports that not only endangers ourselves but others at the same time. We also avoid taking up sports or adventurous activities that damages the environment more than it preserves, in other words, leave nothing but footprints in the sand.

Lastly, 2 of the most challenging aspects would be to network with other known gay sports group around the world and also known (straight) sports group in Singapore. ADLUS have attracted some straight people into the groups, strangely enough and it has gathered a rather and surprisingly good reputation amongst some sports groups in Singapore.

Actually, I don't think that the above 2 goals are as challenging as getting gay people to identify ADLUS as their sports groups. I always saddens me to know that yet another group came up and are also trying to do sports activities. It's even sadder to me when people form sports groups and competes purposely outside of ADLUS. It always makes me think about what's wrong with ADLUS that some people will not want to use it as a base, but start their own? What could ADLUS have done better to make those people feel proud to be associated with ADLUS as an official competing sport group?

At the end of the day, I guess we have to accept that this is what it means to have democracy and diversity. Despite all efforts, there will always be elements who want to do it better than you or think that there is a better way to do it. This is probably what makes life fun and interesting.

ADLUS

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History[]

See also[]

References[]

Acknowledgements[]

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