Singapore’s parliament lifts gay sex ban
Singapore’s parliament decriminalised sex between men on Tuesday, but amended the constitution to effectively block full marriage equality. The British colonialera law penalised sex between men with up to two years in jail, although the statute was not actively enforced.
The law had long been criticised as discriminatory and stigmatising to the LGBTQ community. Parliament’s move follows previous failed attempts to have the legislation repealed in the courts.
“The air I breathe is definitely feeling a lot lighter now,” Benjamin
Xue, a 39-year-old Singaporean gay man said.
Roy Tan, a medical doctor who had once unsuccessfully challenged the law in court, said he felt “grateful and privileged
to have witnessed the endpoint in our 12-year-long struggle to strike down” the law.
He described the repeal as “the birth of a new chapter in the history of Singapore’s LGBT community”.
But parliament also passed a constitutional amendment bolstering the existing definition of marriage as between a man and a woman, essentially closing the door on future legal challenges that could establish equal marital rights for LGBTQ people.
Law minister K Shanmugam said the existing definition of marriage needed to be protected because scrapping 377A could have led to the heterosexual structure being challenged as well.
If the definition of marriage is altered, it would endanger all government policies based on the traditional structure such as those on housing and healthcare, he said.