“Because [repealing 377A] is what we have to fight for, we are also not, I suspect, in a place where we are imagining what else is possible. I think it is possible to imagine something that benefits non-queer people too.”

Some Singaporeans advocate marriage equality, but to D’Bus it may be possible to be more inclusive than that. “For example, can we protect family structures built on something other than romantic love and the exchange of property between families?

“In an ageing population, would it not be beneficial to everyone if people could figure out how to care for each other beyond falling in love and procreating? How can we then protect these kinds of relationships? Surely, my most heterosexual friends might need to be cared for as they, hopefully, get old?”

For D’Bus, whose stage name references American civil rights icon Rosa Parks’ defining moment, when she refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger, drag and activism have long been intertwined. After attending college in the United States from 2001 to 2004, she joined a theatre company involved in queer activism.

“I thought I wanted to be a performance artist and, through a series of events, I came to try drag, where I realised I could say and do a lot of things that I wanted to say and do, and that [it] would at least pay for itself,” D’Bus says.

In 2010, she returned to Singapore, where she thought she would give up drag for good after taking up a corporate job. But the lure of the stage was too strong, and she eventually picked up her make-up brushes, put on her costumes and returned to performing.

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Today, she is the host of a monthly drag revue called Riot!, which is held at the Hard Rock Cafe Singapore, off Orchard Road. While there are other drag shows in Singapore, she says hers is different in a few ways. In terms of fashion, a Becca D’Bus show tends to lean more towards the theatrical and in-your-face rather than the glamazon look many other shows favour.

She has only one rule – that performers must stick to the standard format of a drag performance, where they sing or lip-synch to songs while dancing or pantomiming. “Riot! is the only drag show in Singapore where queens are told to do exactly whatever they want to do; I don’t get involved in whatever performances they do on stage,” D’Bus says.

This has led to some “whack things”, such as obscure, performance-art-driven segments. “If you’re not into that, it’s just five minutes – go pee or go get a drink and come back,” d’Bus says with a shrug.

There are also performances that incorporate social commentary. “You could pick songs that are relevant to the moment, or sometimes performers do songs that can get a bit ‘touchy’,” she explains. “Once, one of the performers did a number post-Crazy Rich Asians – which was a pop cultural moment if there ever was one in Singapore. She chose the theme song for the trailer, Money, and performed it dressed as a samsui woman while selling tissue packets to the audience.”

Samsui women were immigrants who came to Singapore in the pre-independence days to work on construction sites.

Riot! is also unique for its profit-sharing model under which performers get a cut of the takings. D’Bus also raises funds for various causes, such as the T Project, a shelter for homeless transgender women, by passing the tip bucket around.

As for those out-there outfits she wears when off duty, she says she isn’t trying to spark conversation through the fashion choices she makes.

“I make most of my costumes and for me it is an experiment. And after you make them, what are you going to do with them? Wear them lah. I run around a lot in big muumuu dresses, and for some people it is a big affront – you get intense staring,” she says.

Earlier this year, when she was having a late dim sum supper after a show, she was approached by a group of men who tried to “police” her gender by asking about her nail polish and stained lipstick. “They also thought it would be cute to yell the words ‘you gay ah?!’ when I got up to pay at the cashier,” she wrote in a Facebook post.

“Surely everybody knows it is rude to interrupt a fat person when they eat,” she added in the post. Her intention was merely to blow off steam, but the incident soon went viral. What was most heartening, she says, was that the restaurant publicly condemned the diners’ behaviour.

Such confrontations aside, D’Bus is comfortable enough in her own skin to ignore the sideways glances she gets. “For the most part, I don’t really notice it, and, on a certain level, I wear my creations because I am proud of them and not to challenge societal views blah blah.”