S’pore activists challenge gay sex ban

SINGAPORE: Singapore’s top court yesterday heard the first legal challenges to its colonial-era gay sex law since similar legislation was scrapped in India last year, an issue that divides the socially-conservative city-state.

Three activists are arguing that Section 377A, a rarely-used law under which a man found to have committed an act of “gross indecency” with another man could be jailed for up to two years, was unconstitutional. The law does not apply to lesbians.

Previous efforts to repeal the law in 2014 failed, but activists have been emboldened by the landmark Indian ruling.

“Homosexual males are not lesser Singaporeans. They... deserve the same respect and legal protection under the Constitution. Section 377A... violates those fundamental constitutional protections,” Brian Choong, one of the three, said in a written submission.

Yesterday’s hearings, the first of a number to be heard over the coming weeks, were not open to the public. The Attorney-General’s Chambers, acting as defendant, did not respond to a request for comment.

India scrapped its gay sex ban in September last year, a landmark judgment that prompted celebrations across India and elsewhere in South Asia, where activists hoped to push for similar reform. Gay sex is criminalised in about 70 countries globally, according to International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association.

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has previously said that Singapore society “is not that liberal on these matters”.

Recent surveys show there is growing acceptance of homosexuality. In a poll released in May by Singapore think-tank Institute of Policy Studies, opposition to gay marriage fell to 60 per cent, down from 74 per cent in 2013.

Choong argues that recently declassified documents from the United Kingdom National Archives show that the original purpose of the law was to stamp out male prostitution and it should, therefore, not apply more broadly to all male homosexuals.