– I think this is the right thing to do, and something that most people in Singapore will accept. This is what Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong says on Sunday The government will now repeal section 377A of the Criminal Code. It is a law from when Singapore was a British colony, which criminalizes sex between men. It does not include sex between women or other sexes, according to the Reuters news agency. The law has been seen as a ban on homosexuality. If you were convicted as a man for having sex with someone of the same sex, you could be punished for up to two years. However, no one has been sentenced for this in the past decades, writes the news agency. Loong said that homosexuality is now better accepted, and scrapping 377A would be in line with current social mores, writes the BBC. – I hope it will be an easy one for gay Singaporeans, he says. Protests and political gatherings are strictly regulated in Singapore, but every year LGBTQ activists hold an event known as Pink Dot that attracts tens of thousands of participants. Photo: ROSLAN RAHMAN / AFP It has not been decided when the law will be lifted, according to Reuters. – Marriage is between a woman and a man Even though the city-state will now decriminalize homosexuality, Loong emphasizes that marriage is between a woman and a man. – We believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman, and that children should be brought up within such families. The traditional family will constitute the Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong says that there is opposition among religious groups to repealing the law. Photo: EVELYN HOCKSTEIN / Reuters the basic building block of society, said Loong. Singapore has no plans to change the legal definition of marriage, write Reuters. – It takes time – It is good news that Singapore will decriminalize homosexuality, says leader of Fri Inge Alexander Gjestvang. He draws parallels to Norway and says that even though homosexuality was decriminalized in Norway in 1972, it still took many years before we got the Partnership Act in 1993, the Joint Marriage Act in 2009, and the possibility of marriage in the church in 2017. – This shows that it can it will take time after decriminalization before legal frameworks and recognition of gay cohabitation and marriage are in place, but Singapore has now taken a big step in the right direction, says Gjestvang. Leader of the association for gender and sexuality diversity Fri Inge Alexander Gjestvang. Photo: The association FRI Stoda in the rest of Asia Singapore is not the only one of the former British colonies that has a version of section 377, writes the BBC. It was introduced by the British government in India in the 19th century, and made it forbidden to have intercourse “against the order of nature with men, women or animals”, according to the British news channel. India decriminalized homosexuality in 2018, and here a man walks in the pride parade in Chennai in June. Photo: ARUN SANKAR / AFP India abolished the law in 2018, which raised hopes among activists that other former colonies would follow suit. It didn’t happen. The old colonial law still exists in several countries in Asia, such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Malaysia, Gjestvang tells Fri. In other parts of Asia that were not British colonies, sexuality between two of the same sex is legal. There are countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Japan, China and South Korea. – Taiwan has introduced common marriage law, and we hope that more countries will follow suit, he says.
ttn-69
Singapore will make homosexuality legal – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
