Singapore is set to repeal a law that bans gay sex, effectively making it legal to be homosexual in the country.
Announced by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on national TV, the decision comes after years of fierce debate revolving around the issue.
LGBT activists in Singapore have hailed the move as “a win for humanity”. Singapore is known for its conservative values, but in recent years an increasing number of people have called for the colonial-era 377A law to be abolished.
Singapore is the latest Asian nation to take a positive stance on LGBT rights, after India, Taiwan and Thailand.
The ruling government’s earlier stance was to keep 377A – which bans sex between men. Yet, it also promised not to enforce the law in an effort to appease both sides.
But on Sunday night, PM Lee said that the government would abolish the law as he believed “this is the right thing to do, and something that most Singaporeans will accept”.
He added that “gay people are now better accepted” and removing 377A would bring the country’s laws in line with “current social mores, and I hope, provide some relief to gay Singaporeans”.
‘We finally did it, and we’re ecstatic that this discriminatory, antiquated law is finally going to be off the books. There’s a sense that maybe it took a little too long, but it had to happen, you know. Today we are very, very happy,” gay activist Johnson Ong told British broadcaster BBC.
A coalition of LGBT rights groups called it a “hard-won victory and a triumph of love over fear”.
Yet, activists expressed concern over another announcement Mr Lee made in the same speech.
According to the BBC, he had said the government would ensure better legal protection for the definition of marriage as one between a man and a woman. This would effectively make it harder for gay marriage to be legalised.
But they also expressed concern over another announcement Mr Lee made in the same speech.
LGBT activists said this was “disappointing” and warned that it would only further discrimination in society. Protect Singapore, a conservative group, insisted that they were “deeply disappointed” that the repeal was going ahead without assurance of “comprehensive safeguards”.
The activists made an appeal for for the definition of heterosexual marriage to be fully enshrined in the constitution, as well as laws banning “LGBT promotion” to children.
