Singapore signals male-sex ban review won’t allow gay marriage

[reader]

From Bloomberg

Supporters attend the annual "Pink Dot" event in a public show of support for the LGBT community at Hong Lim Park in Singapore on June 18, 2022. (AFP file photo)

Public discussion on a colonial-era law that criminalises sex between men is gaining momentum in Singapore, where a senior minister said any easing would ensure the current definition of marriage is protected.

While the government is reviewing the regulation, “at the same time we are considering how can we safeguard the current legal position on marriage from being challenged in the courts,” Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam said in a Facebook video clip posted on the weekend. “We are now considering how best to achieve this balance.” 

Singapore has grappled with how to make its society more inclusive of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community even as some countries around the world move toward recognising same-sex marriages. Several attempts to overturn the legal ban on sex between men, known as Section 377A of the Penal Code, have failed in courts over the years. Thailand, regarded as conservative and deeply religious, became the first country in Southeast Asia to move toward legalising same-sex unions this year.

The colonial-era law reflected Singapore’s conservative stance toward the LGBTQ community, and any discussion of changing it in the past has drawn resistance from religious groups. Recent comments from the Catholic Church and an LGBTQ group signal a potential compromise that would address the biggest concerns of both sides -- decriminalising sex between men while stopping short of recognising same-sex marriages.

A 2014 court challenge against 377A failed when Singapore’s Supreme Court ruled it was a constitutional matter. In February, the Court of Appeal upheld a lower court’s decision to dismiss three challenges to Section 377A, Channel NewsAsia reported. The law has not been actively enforced for over a decade. 

Dealing with 377A, while also maintaining the current legal definition that marriage is between a man and a woman, should be discussed and decided in Parliament and not in the courts, said Shanmugam.

The local LGBTQ community has no immediate plans to mount legal challenges to redefine marriage’s definition, Leow Yangfa, the executive director of rights group Oogachaga, was cited in Today newspaper as saying.

Taiwan is the only Asian jurisdiction that legally recognizes same-sex marriage. Vietnam allows same-sex couples to have symbolic weddings but doesn’t recognize the marriage. Hong Kong doesn’t allow it, but does permit gay expatriate workers to bring their spouses in on dependent visas. Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei have rules that outlaw sexual relations between people of the same gender.

 

[fedssocr]

Finally!

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-62545577

[PeterRS]

For years the Singapore government has been downplaying the effect of Section 377A. The Prime Minster had even stated it would be kept on the statute books but not enacted. If there is ever a reason for not having a particular law, that surely is it! As the eminent French statesman Jean Baptiste Colbert wrote in the 17th century, “If you enact a law and do not enforce it, you are condoning what you condemn.”

The basis for keeping it was basically a nonsensical argument that its repeal would be harmful to Singapore's multi racial society. As Hong Kong and Taiwan had shown over the last 30 years a Chinese society as a whole is not against homosexuality - the argument used for many years by Hong Kong's colonial government for not repealing its colonial law until 1990. And with Chinese making up by far the largest ethnic group in Singapore it seeems to have raised little objection over the years. The main fiercely anti-repeal group has been the evangelical Christian churches. It was the same in Taiwan when gay marriage was being discussed. Yet those professing to be Christians make up less than 19% of the population. 

I am reminded of the great actor Sir Ian McKellen who visited Singapore in 2007  when giving performances of Shakesepeare's King Lear with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Appearing on a 'live' television morning programme, the host asked him if there was anything he would particularly like to see in Singapore. He replied, "Well, if someone could show me the way to a nice gay bar, that would be lovely!" The programme controllers were apparently very worried by this remark, which was stupid given that Singapore already had several gay bars, one which I had often visited named rather appropriately given Sir Ian's remark - Backstage!

But the past is the past and Singapore is finally taking some positive steps forward on the LGBT front.