LGBT+ activists hail Singapore’s decision to lift ban on gay sex: ‘Enables process of healing’

LGBT groups call it a ‘hard-won victory and a triumph of love over fear’

LGBT+ activists on Monday celebrated Singapore government’s decision to decriminalise gay sex, repealing a colonial-era law to legalise homosexuality in the city-state.

Announcing his decision to repeal the archaic section 377A law, prime minister Lee Hsien Loong said Singaporean society, especially young people, is becoming more accepting of gay people.

“The government will repeal Section 377A and decriminalize sex between men,” Mr Lee said in his televised National Day Rally speech. “I believe this is the right thing to do and something that Singaporeans will accept.”

An increasing number of gay rights activists have sought decriminalisation of gay sex by revoking Section 377A of the Penal Code, a colonial-era law that made sex between men punishable by up to two years in jail.

The law was last debated in the parliament in 2008 when the government’s position was to keep the law but not enforce it in a bid to appease both sides.

But on Sunday night, Mr Lee caught many by surprise when he said societal norms have shifted considerably, declaring that homosexuality will be legalised

However, he said Singapore has no plans to change the legal definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman to not shake up the city-state’s traditional family and societal norms.

He said the government will amend the constitution to “safeguard the institution of marriage” and prevent any constitutional challenge to allow same-sex unions.

“Let me reassure everyone that in handling the issue, the government will continue to uphold families as the basic building blocks of society,” he said. “We will keep our policies on family and marriage unchanged and maintain the prevailing norms and social values of our society.”

People react as Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announces that Singapore will decriminalise gay sex (Boo Junfeng via REUTERS)

The move was lauded by dozens of LGBTQ groups, including Pink Dot SG which organises annual rallies, who warned that there is still a long way to equality and new bans on same-sex unions could entrench discrimination against them.

A community statement signed by 22 LGBTQ groups said the repeal would be “a significant milestone and a powerful statement that state-sanctioned discrimination has no place in Singapore”.

They called it a “hard-won victory, a triumph of love over fear” and it will enable “the process of healing” for “everyone who has experienced the kinds of process of healing.

However, the groups said the repeal was merely “the first step on a long road towards full equality for LGBTQ people” amid other areas of discrimination they face at home, in schools, workplaces, and in housing and health systems.

It added that the caveat to propose amendments to ban same-sex unions will “undermine the secular character of our constitution, codify further discrimination into supreme law and tie the hands of future Parliaments”.

However, opponents of the move warned that the changes mustn’t hinder their religious freedom to articulate views on public morality nor cause any “reverse discrimination” on those who don’t support homosexuality.

Attendees form the characters Repeal 377A in a call to repeal Section 377A of Singapore's Penal Code which criminalises sex between men during the Pink Dot event in 2019 (Getty Images)

Christian and Muslim groups demanded protection of heterosexual marriage in the constitution before Section 377A is repealed.

“We seek the government’s assurance that the religious freedom of churches will be protected as we continue to teach against same-sex sexual acts and highlight such acts,” the National Council of Churches said in a statement.

Pastors and church workers must be protected from charges of “hate speech” and not be compelled to adopt solely “LGBTQ-affirming” strategies in their counselling, it said.

Describing it as “an extremely regrettable decision”, the Alliance of Pentecostal and Charismatic Churches of Singapore - which represents over 80 local churches - offered scathing criticism of the move.

“The decision to remove a moral marker as weighty as S377A signals a rewriting of acceptable sexual relationships, and celebrates homosexuality as being characteristic of a mainstream social environment,” it said.

With the landmark ruling, Singapore has become the latest place in Asia to decriminalise gay sex after India, Taiwan and

India’s top court decriminalized gay sex in a 2018 ruling while Taiwan became the first Asian government to legalize gay marriage in 2019. Thailand recently approved plans allowing same-sex unions.

Additional reporting by agencies