LGBTQ+ community hail Singapore’s gay sex repeal

The LGBTQ+ community hailed Singapore’s announcement to end the ban on gay sex as “a win for humanity.”

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced the decision, that the city-state will repeal the law that bans gay sex, on national television last night.

The 70 year old PM said they would abolish the law as he believed it “is the right thing to do, and something that most Singaporeans will accept.”

“Gay people are now better accepted and scrapping 377A would bring the country’s laws in line with “current social mores, and I hope, provide some relief to gay Singaporeans.”

Singapore inherited 377A from the British and chose to retain it after independence in 1965. In essence, it bans sex between men, but it also promised not to enforce the law to appease both sides.

But LGBT activists have long called for 377A to be scrapped, saying the law perpetuates social stigma against gay people and goes against Singapore’s constitution which forbids discrimination. But on Sunday the government finally relented, much to the delight of the LGBTQ+ community.

A gay activist Johnson Ong made it known he is very happy the government has seen sense after all of these years.

“We finally did it, and we’re ecstatic that this discriminatory, antiquated law is finally going to be off the books.

“There’s a sense that maybe it took a little too long, but it had to happen, you know. Today we are very, very happy.”

A coalition of LGBTQ+ groups called it a “hard-won victory and a triumph of love over fear.”

Not everyone is happy with the PM’s announcement.

Protect Singapore, a conservative group made it known they were “deeply disappointed” that the repeal was going ahead without assurance of “comprehensive safeguards.”

They called for the definition of heterosexual marriage to be fully enshrined in the constitution, as well as laws banning “LGBTQ+ promotion” to children.

But yesterday, Lee appealed to both camps for understanding in his National Day Rally speech.

“All groups should exercise restraint because that is the only way we can move forward as a nation together.”

In recent years, other parts of Asia have also moved to legalise gay marriage.

Taiwan became the first place to do so in 2019, and in June Thailand approved draft legislation allowing same-sex unions.

SOURCE: The Star