Two Singaporeans jailed in Abu Dhabi for "wearing women's clothes"

[Anakin McFly]

One is a trans woman, the other her male (and possibly gay) friend who were there for a work project; the latter was actually in a normal white shirt but also had earrings on. Both are Muslim. They were arrested while having lunch at a mall and sentenced to a year's jail:

http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/t ... ns-clothes

I don't know them personally, but I have a lot of local trans friends and this could have been any one of them. So it hits a bit too close to home. On the one hand, it's Abu Dhabi, and they should have known better than to go there, but the idea of being arrested while doing nothing more than having lunch is terrifyingly senseless. Plus they're both going to be held in a men's jail, which never goes well for trans women at all.

They've since found a lawyer and their families have started a crowdfunding campaign for legal feels of SGD$22k (about USD$17k). They've raised about $8k so far in a few hours, so at least there's hope.

(Social media comments have been a mixed bag. Some really supportive comments, but there's that one guy who was proud of how he didn't get stuck agonising over whether to insult Muslims or trans people because he figured he could just do both.)

EDIT: Turns out the guy is a friend of a friend. :(

[Anakin McFly]

EDIT: All the money has been raised!

In the meantime, the sentence has been reduced to a DH10,000 fine (~US$2.8k) and deportation. :D

I think that's the worst case scenario now. Not sure if the lawyers will or can still intervene to appeal further, and what will happen to all that money if not. They've already been paid, and some of that money was mine, so I'm a bit concerned about that now.