Reverend Dr. Kim Hao Yap (STH ’54, STH ’68)
Reverend Dr. Kim Hao Yap (STH ’54, STH ’68) is the first Asian Bishop of The Methodist Church in Malaysian and Singapore. He also served as General Secretary of the Christian Conference of Asia, an ecumenical organization of over a hundred churches in Asia. In his current retirement, Rev. Dr. Yap serves as Pastoral Advisor to the LGBT-affirmative Free Community Church in Singapore. As a strong straight ally and vocal advocate of LGBT equality, in 2007 he was awarded the Dignity Award by People Like Us in recognition of his unyielding support for the LGBT community in Singapore. Rev. Dr. Yap won the STH Distinguished Alumni award in 1988 and in 2014 was nominated for the first ever Asia Pink Awards, the region’s premier LGBTQI event celebrating the emergence of a progressive Asia in equality.