HOMOSEXUAL sex prohibition law Section 377A will be abolished by Singapore but the country retains the definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman and will further bolster legislation underpinning this, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has reiterated.
In his annual national day rally (NDR 2022) speech, Lee Hsien Loong said: “I believe this is the right thing to do, and something that most Singaporeans will now accept.”
Scrapping 377A would bring the nation’s laws in line with “current social mores, and I hope, provide some relief to gay Singaporeans,” he said, adding that “gay people are now better accepted, said the premier on Sunday (21).
He also said that the government will improve the legal protection of the marriage between a man and a woman, the definition of marriage. This would essentially make it more difficult to legalise homosexual marriage.
Stonewall, the UK’s leading charity for LGBTQ+ and other groups applauded Lee’s decision to remove Section 377A of the Penal Code, but they also voiced worry that ruling out same-sex marriage would contribute to the continuation of discrimination.
Stonewall tweeted: “This is a major breakthrough for gay and bi men in Singapore, whose relationships will no longer be criminalised. Huge congratulations to LGBTQ+ equality groups!
“The Singaporean government now needs to go further and allow same-sex couples to marry.”
Singaporean LGBTQ+ campaigners have praised the decision as “a win for humanity.”
Section 377A remained unaltered despite the Penal Code’s 2007 amendments by Parliament.
S377A, which refers to sexual acts between men but not women and specifies the punishment for violation, reads, “Any male person who, in public or private, commits, or abets the commission of, or procures or attempts to procure the commission by any male person of, any act of gross indecency with another male person, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years.”
The city-state is renowned for its conservative ideals, but in recent years, more and more individuals have demanded that the 377A statute from the colonial era be repealed.
After India, Taiwan, and Thailand, Singapore is the most recent country in Asia to act on LGBTQ+ rights.
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