Singapore to table bill decrimnalising same sex relations between men

The Singaporean government has tabled two legislations that seeks to reverse a colonial-era law criminalising sex between men.

The proposed bills seek to replace Section 377A and introduce a new “Institution of Marriage” act as an amendment to the constitution to protect the existing definition of marriage.

According to both Singapore's Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF), the proposed bill will not codify or enshrine the definition of marriage into the constitution which is currently defined as between a man and a woman.

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Under the new bill, the parliament can define the institution of marriage and can formulate policies on the basis of that definition with the government.

The bill will be debated in the parliament on November 28, according to local media reports.

The move to decriminalise homosexual relations comes after Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in his National Day Rally speechon August 21 said that Section 377A would be repealed.

“Most people accept that a person’s sexual orientation and behaviour is a private and personal matter, and that sex between men should not be a criminal offence,” he said.

In a joint statement, MHA and MSF said that the government had held extensive consultations with the stakeholders before deciding to repeal Section 377A.

“From the national point of view, private sexual behaviour between consenting adults does not raise any law-and-order issues,” said the statement.

Though the government has been more accepting of the LGBTQ+ community, the people, on the other hand, have opposed gay relations.

According to Bloomberg, apoll conducted by Blackbox Research recently found that 55 per cent of those surveyed said "no” when asked whether they personally support gay marriage while 31 per cent said "yes.”

(With inputs from agencies)

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