These gatherings took place indoors, especially on Sunday nights at various mainstream discos that were eager to tap into the pink dollar on a day when business from their straight patrons was slow.
This phenomenon began in the early 1980s when the police started to turn a blind eye to men disco-dancing with each other, but not during the slow numbers, when they were cautioned by the managements of these venues to "behave" to avoid complaints from heterosexual patrons.
By the mid-1980s, the growing number of gay men flocking to these discos on Sunday nights drove the straight clientele away, and the management was subsequently more inclined to tolerate homosexuals engaging in slow dancing and tight embraces.
Realising the untapped potential and pent-up demand for LGBTQ+ pride events, more and more mainstream discos advertised Sundays as "men's night" to attract the LGBTQ+ community.
This need was filled by pioneering entrepreneurs, especially Max Lim, who organised weekday private gay events at roving locations such as discos at Far East Plaza along Orchard Road and nightspots like Dancers - the Club and Forbidden City at Clarke Quay.
After establishing an English-language Web Portal, Fridae.com, in 2000, scientist and entrepreneur Dr. Stuart Koe tested the socio-political boundaries and organised Singapore's first private, widely advertised public LGBTQ+ pride event.
[citation needed] Nation.02, co-organised by Fridae Newsletter and Kinemat Productions was sponsored by Qantas and other corporations including Pepsi, Planet Fitness and The Gallery Hotel.
[citation needed] Partygoers had a choice of 2 dance areas with top Sydney DJs Luke Leal and Mark Alsop; DJ Lisa C. and Borhead[2] from Kinemat Productions,[3] co-organiser of the event.
This year's major corporate sponsor was Subaru represented locally by Motor Image Enterprises Pte Ltd. An estimated 1000 partygoers were visitors from Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand and as far away as Canada and the United States.
Nation.03 marked a milestone in that it was the first time in Singaporean television history that a local gay event had been reported in a positive light, accompanied by snippets of bare-chested men dancing on podiums.
In April 2005, the Licensing Division of the Singapore Police rejected Fridae Newsletter's application to hold Nation.05, which had been held annually since National Day in August 2001, citing the event to be 'contrary to public interest.'.
[5] Dr. Stuart Koe, CEO of Fridae Newsletter said, 'We are disappointed that the authorities have deemed a National Day celebration by Singapore's gay citizens as being 'contrary to public interest' when it had previously been approved for four years without incident.
[5] It was held from 4 to 6 November 2005 at 8 venues with DJs and artistes from the United States, Thailand, Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand and Hong Kong.