‘Same-sex’ couple wants marriage restored

SINGAPORE: A couple has launched a legal challenge after authorities annulled their marriage because the husband had a sex change, a lawyer said yesterday.

The government voided the marriage last year, saying the operation made their partnership a same-sex union, that is illegal under Singapore law.

Local attitudes towards homosexuality are still conservative and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the country is not yet ready for same-sex marriage.

The couple, Faith and Bryce Volta, married as man and woman in 2015, the Straits Times newspaper reported.

Faith, the husband, then underwent sex change surgery and changed his identity card to state “female”.

Six months later, the government’s Registrar of Marriages met the couple to discuss the sex change and later informed them the marriage would be annulled.

The couple have now asked the High Court to review the decision, confirmed lawyer Eugene Thuraisingam, whose law firm is representing them for free.

Authorities previously cited laws that state marriage is a union between a man and a woman, as the reason for annulling the union.

Singapore maintains legislation dating back to British colonial rule, making sex between men a criminal act, although it does not actively enforce the law. – AFP