'Disneyland With The Death Penalty': Singapore's High Court Upholds Colonial-Era Ban On Homosexuality

Lee Kuan Yew’s grandson Li Huanwu and his boyfriend at Pink Dot,

The news has come as a huge blow to LGBTQ activists in the southeast Asian city-state.

Singapore's High Court has upheld a colonial-era ban on homosexuality, in a huge blow for the southeast Asian city-state's LGBTQ community.

Judges in Singapore's highest court has dismissed a constitutional challenge against Section 377A of the country's penal code banning male same-sex intimacy, the Human Dignity Trust announced on Tuesday (30 March).

Same-sex sexual activity between men has been illegal in Singapore since the British imposed Section 377A in the 1930s during the colonial era.

While rarely enforced, men who commit 'gross indecency' with another man or attempts to procure sex can be jailed for up to two years.

While same-sex sexual activity between women is technically legal, campaigners argue the law represses the wider LGBTQ community as a whole.

The now-dismissed case had been brought by three men: Johnson Ong Ming, a 43-year-old disc jockey and producer; 42-year-old Bryan Choong Chee Hoong, the former executive director of LGBT organisation Oogachaga; and Roy Tan Seng Kee, a 61-year-old retired medical doctor.

Activists had been inspired to launch a fresh challenge against Section 377A following the historic repeal of India's colonial-era anti-gay law in 2018, and expressed their dismay at the case's dismissal.

"In declining to strike out this archaic and discriminatory law, the Court has reaffirmed that all gay men in Singapore are effectively un-apprehended criminals,’ said Téa Braun, Director of the Human Dignity Trust (HDT).

"This decision will be extremely disappointing for the plaintiffs and the wider LGBT community in Singapore, who had great hopes that new evidence presented to the Court would make it clear that these draconian laws cannot withstand proper constitutional scrutiny.

"The ruling will also echo harmfully around Asia, where millions of people are criminalised simply because of their sexual orientation or gender identity."

Despite homosexuality continuing to be banned in Singapore, a Pride event named Pink Dot has taken place annually since 2009.

In 2018, Li Huanwu, the grandson of Singapore's 'founding father' Lee Kuan Yew, came out publicly, becoming a rare openly gay public figure in the city.

Both open and illegal – LGBT+ Singapore

LGBT+ people have an unusual status in Singapore.

Section 377A used to make all oral or anal sex illegal. But in 2007 Singapore removed those bans on heterosexuals and lesbians so it now only bans gay and bi men’s sex.

Despite this the city has openly gay bars and even saunas. Moreover, Singapore’s Pink Dot celebrations are a huge and very public annual protest against the law.

Meanwhile, the law technically punishes sex with two years jail. But authorities rarely use it.

However, the law hangs over all LGBT+ people. It stops the community advancing other rights. Trans people can change gender in Singapore but there is no same-sex marriage or discrimination protection.

Moreover, many western workers in Singapore’s many big international companies are openly LGBT+. Indeed, some suggest the authorities do not enforce the law is because they fear backlash from multinational companies on which the country depends.

By contrast, fewer native Singaporeans feel safe to be out at work or in their families.

‘The journey will not end till 377A is abolished’

Despite today’s judgement, activists and lawyers seem likely to press on. And given similar Supreme Court decisions elsewhere against the law, they may very likely win in the end.

Indeed, M Ravi, the lawyer for Roy Tan Seng Kee, has already posted this defiant message:

‘Societal norms have changed with time and our voices have grown and so we will keep on trying.

‘The journey will not end till Section 377A is declared unconstitutional and abolished.’

Meanwhile, Téa Braun, director of the Human Dignity Trust, said:

‘In declining to strike out this archaic and discriminatory law, the Court has reaffirmed that all gay men in Singapore are effectively un-apprehended criminals.

‘This decision will be extremely disappointing for the plaintiffs and the wider LGBT community in Singapore, who had great hopes that new evidence presented to the court would make it clear that these draconian laws cannot withstand proper constitutional scrutiny.

‘The ruling will also echo harmfully around Asia, where millions of people are criminalized simply because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.’

Source: attitude.co.uk, Staff; gaystarnews.com, Staff, March 30, 2020

Singapore upholds gay sex ban but where else are LGBT+ relations illegal?

KUALA LUMPUR, March 30 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A Singapore court on Monday upheld a colonial-era law that punishes sex between men after it threw out petitions that challenged the ban that could see gay men jailed for up to two years.

The high court rejected the cases filed by three gay men who argued the rarely-enforced law was unconstitutional, saying it “remains important in reflecting public sentiment and beliefs”.

Here are key facts about where same-sex relations remain illegal around the world:

- Same-sex relations are illegal in 70 countries around the world, with a large number of these countries in Africa.

- Gabon in central Africa became the 70th country to ban gay sex when it passed a law last year with penalties of six months in prison and fine of 5 million CFA francs ($8,500)

- In May last year, a Kenyan court upheld a law criminalising gay sex dating back to British rule. Advocates are challenging that ruling.

- Six countries impose the death penalty for consensual same-sex sexual acts - Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Nigeria, Sudan and Somalia.

- Another 26 nations impose maximum penalties for same-sex sexual relations of between 10 years and life imprisonment.

- Uganda said last October that it would not impose the death penalty for gay sex after its plan to reintroduced a bill colloquially known as “Kill the Gays” sparked outcry.

- Brunei in Southeast Asia also backtracked on similar plan last year after intense criticism.

- Many of the states criminalising gay sex are Commonwealth countries with the law originating from British colonial times. In 2018, former British prime minister Theresa May said she deeply regretted Britain’s role and “the legacy of discrimination, violence and even death that persists today”.

- The Singapore petitions were launched after India scrapped a similar law in 2018, with the court overturning the ban. Both are former British colonies.

- Gay sex between adults is legal in 123 of the 193 member states of the United Nations. Countries that have most recently decriminalised homosexuality included Botswana, Angola and India.

- Same-sex marriage is legal in 27 United Nations member states.

Source: International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA)

Source: Reuters, Beh Lih Yi, Thomson Reuters Foundation, March 30, 2020

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