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31 Mar 2020

Singapore High Court Maintains Ban on Gay Sex

The High Court has kept on the statute books a law that criminalises homosexuality. 

Section 377A is a colonial era hang-over – the British introduced similar laws across its Empire.  India’s Supreme Court struck down its Section 377 as unconstitutional in September 2018 and this gave Singaporeans fresh optimism that they too might be able to defeat the law through the courts.
Legal challenges were mounted by 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.
In October 2014, the Singapore Court of Appeal similarly refused to remove the country’s anti-gay law from the statute books. It said LGBT+ people would have to wait for Parliament to repeal Section 377A. However, politicians are unwilling to change it - and today, Singapore’s High Court rejected the new appeals.
However, hope remains! In Singapore, the Supreme Court is split into a lower part, the High Court, and an upper division, the Court of Appeal. Now the case can be taken back to the Court of Appeal.
The challengers will fight on – and we hope they succeed!!
To read more, click here! 

Section 377A is a colonial era hang-over – the British introduced similar laws across its Empire.  India’s Supreme Court struck down its Section 377 as unconstitutional in September 2018 and this gave Singaporeans fresh optimism that they too might be able to defeat the law through the courts.

Legal challenges were mounted by 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.

In October 2014, the Singapore Court of Appeal similarly refused to remove the country’s anti-gay law from the statute books. It said LGBT+ people would have to wait for Parliament to repeal Section 377A. However, politicians are unwilling to change it - and today, Singapore’s High Court rejected the new appeals.

However, hope remains! In Singapore, the Supreme Court is split into a lower part, the High Court, and an upper division, the Court of Appeal. Now the case can be taken back to the Court of Appeal.

The challengers will fight on – and we hope they succeed!!

To read more, click here! 

Singapore

Reader's Comments

1. 2020-03-31 20:39  
The bottom line is lawyers & politicians are scared of backlash from the conservatives in society.
2. 2020-04-01 00:11  
Yeah right, Do you think people will stop having sex?
They need to Stop being a hypocrite!
3. 2020-04-01 08:25  
I don't think they are hypocrites. They are just ignoramuses, not educated enough about sexuality of minorities like us. They have a distorted understanding about our nature, that we destroy the so-called family values, social morality and are closely associated with HIV cases. They also think we can be converted back to straight and that we are stubborn in sticking to our homosexuality. The religious-minded will also refer to their respective holy books to condemn our behaviour and call us perverts.
Comment #4 was deleted by an administrator on 2020-04-02 16:08
5. 2020-04-01 10:01  
2 men have filed appeals against a High Court decision to dismiss their legal challenges against the law criminalising sex between men. For details, read:

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/two-men-file-appeals-against-high-court-decision-to-dismiss-section-377a-challenge
6. 2020-04-01 14:38  
It's also schizophrenic, since the government says that the law will stay in place but will not be applied.
@nightingale, do you think the Indian read-down will have an influence eventually?
7. 2020-04-04 17:27  
No. Whether it's India or Taiwan or Thailand, it will have zero effect on Sg. Our court will simply dismiss them and say "They have their own culture, their own laws. We have ours." The Sg govt, led by whichever party, will be afraid of losing votes. The only way change can come is from its younger generation. A recent survey found that the younger generation is more accepting to gay people as compared to the older generation.

Just look at the Singaporean youths. Westernisation has accelerated that Asian traditions are in the process of being cast off. More and more families are speaking English at home rather than Mandarin or non-Mandarin dialects. How many Chinese youngsters and sing Chinese songs? How many who have left school can read a Chinese newspaper? Even the Malays are much more liberal than their peers from neighbouring countries. Young unmarried couples hold hand publicly, which is frowned up elsewhere as it is considered 'khalwat' (intimacy). So we can only wait for the older generation to pass on before there's a chance for penal code 377A to be abolished.
8. 2020-04-04 18:04  
I understand your point. Yet foreign influence does exist on your governments, otherwise they would not have the schizophrenic attitude I am mentioning.
9. 2020-04-05 12:46  
Your perception of its schizophrenia is because on the one hand, the govt has to be careful not to offend the conservative forces and on the other, the late ex-prime minister Lee Kuan Yew had already said that homosexuality is something that can't be changed. Both the present prime minister (as well as his wife) is also understanding towards gay sexuality. Furthermore, his gay nephew Li Huanwu has legally married his love in South Africa, with the blessings of his parents. So the govt is walking on a tightrope, trying not to offend either parties, i.e. by upholding an archaic law for formality's sake and, at the same time, not actively persecuting the gays. It is just like the choice of our national language. It is on paper to look good but our non-Malay population hardly use it in their daily life.
Comment edited on 2020-04-05 12:48:33
Comment #10 was deleted by an administrator on 2020-04-07 22:46
11. 2020-04-07 20:37  
Gay men take fight to end Singapore’s gay sex ban to highest court

https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/gay-men-take-fight-to-end-singapores-gay-sex-ban-to-highest-court/

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