SINGAPORE: Government bans gay sex
Updated
Gay sex is still illegal in Singapore. The parliament has decided against a proposal to decriminalise sex between consenting gay men.
Presenter: Sen Lam
Speakers: Singapore gay rights activist, Alex Au
AU: Yes, they have kept the law on the books as you've said, but at the same time, they have promised that it will not be enforced "pro-actively," and I'm quoting those words from them. Exactly what that means of course is to be seen.
LAM: I understand that there was huge long petition that was presented to parliament in support of the decriminalisation of gay sex?
AU: Yes, indeed. I think we consider it a great victory. I mean we had something like 2,500 physical signatures on paper collected just over a weekend. And it was a petition presented to parliament through a gay-friendly member of parliament, and it forced parliament to debate the issue, when it could so easily have skirted it.
LAM: But I understand that the issue was not voted on as such. I mean, was there debate first of all in parliament?
AU: Yes, there was. In fact parliament devoted two days for debate on the amendments to the penal code and that's various things on the penal code from marital rape, to murder, to theft and so on and so forth. But in fact, most of the members of parliament who rose to spoke touched on the subject of 377 A. So basically, the subject dominated procedures in parliament for two whole days.
LAM: But how many MP's actually spoke in favour of decriminalising gay sex?
AU: Well, just four of the MP who moved the petition and three other MP's from the Ruling Party no less and so that was really very encouraging.
LAM: Was that surprising, that members of the PAP would actually support this proposal?
AU: Indeed, it was a great surprise, because prior to that only one MP from the Ruling Party had flagged his support for repeal and it was only on the day itself, when we realised that hey, two more MP's are going speak, so that was really good.
LAM: So, why do you think parliament has decided against repealing this law?
AU: Well basically, Singapore doesn't work on an open vote in parliament. The government had decided and signalled long ago that they were not going to consider it. So all we really hoped for, was to give the issue a good airing and to show the government through that good airing, that in fact, support for repeal was very widespread and I think we succeeded in doing that. So there's hope for changes to come real soon.
LAM: But was the situation further confused by the fact that there was an Article 377 and then there's the Article 377-A which is specific to gay sex?
AU: Well, we were afraid that it would be, but it was so widely discussed over the internet and over the newspapers in the months and weeks leading up to the parliamentary session, that I think any person who follows current affairs in Singapore realise the difference between the two and it wasn't really a major factor.
LAM: So, can you clarify it for us? Has parliament now made it legal for heterosexuals to have oral sex?
AU: Yes, yes, that was what really was the cause of much dissatisfaction in the gay community that the parliament, and because the government through parliament has now decided that sodomy, oral and anal sex. I'm so sorry for using crude language, shall be legal from this point on in Singapore, so long as one partner is male and the other partner is female. But the same kind of acts between two male persons will still be punishable by jail terms.
LAM: Has there been much discussion about this in the Singapore media? I mean generally what do you think are Singaporean attitudes towards the gay community?
AU: It's very mixed as in any country I suppose. There are those who are diehard against that. Then there are lots of people to our surprise, I mean certainly quite a lot of people, including many who are straight mothers and fathers and so forth, who totally support a repeal. They think that it's totally archaic and discriminatory. So it's been a good airing, even though we didn't exactly get what we wanted at the end of the day.
