This law is not applied in fact, but the defenders of homosexuals’ rights claim that it always deprives members of the gay community of their rights.
Le Monde
Singapore will soon repeal a law dating from the colonial era and criminalizing sexual relations between men. The announcement was made on Sunday August 21, by the Prime Minister of Cité-etat, Lee Hsien Loong.
“The government will repeal [the law] and decriminalize sexual relations between men. I believe that it is the right thing to do and something that most Singaporeans will now accept,” he added during From a speech, while specifying that he would continue to “defend” marriage as the union of a man and a woman.
a vestige of the British colonial regime
The Prime Minister considered that the situation changed compared to 2007, when the authorities had decided to keep this law. At the time, the legislation had been reformed for the first time, raising the ban only on relations between women and sodomy between heterosexuals . Homosexual men “are today much more accepted,” in Singapore underlined the Prime Minister. The repeal of the law “will put the legislation in accordance with the evolution of mentalities”, estimated Lee Hsien Loong.
The law, a vestige of the British colonial regime, provides for a maximum sentence of two years’ imprisonment for homosexual acts. It is not applied in fact, but the defenders of the rights of homosexuals claim that it always deprives the members of the gay community of their rights, despite the increasingly modern culture of the city-state.