Singapore gay rights
The Singapore Court of Appeals, on Monday, declined to overturn a law that criminalizes gay male relationships. The Elevated court decided that the case has no legal standing since the government pledged not to enforce the law.
The British colonial-era statute that criminalizes same-sex attracted male relationships has been challenged multiple times in the last eight years. Johnson Ong and his Lawyer Eugene Thuraisingam and activists Bryan Chee Hoong, former executive director of LGBTQ organization Oogachaga, and Roy Tan Seng Kee, a retired medical healer filed a case against the Singapore government on Sept. 10, to overturn the archaic statute, which failed again in before the latest appeal.
“I am disappointed with the outcome but the ruling does not mean the finish of the community’s pursuit for equality. I want to thank my fellow litigants, our respective legal counsels and everyone who has shown us overwhelming support over the years,” said Ong in a utterance to GLAAD. “I want to reiterate the devastating impact of SA on the mental and physical well-being of the LGBTQ+ people. It encourages
Homosexuality: The countries where it is illegal to be gay
BBC News
US Vice-President Kamala Harris who is on a tour of three African countries - Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia - has drawn criticism over her support for LGBTQ rights.
In Ghana, in a speech calling for "all people be treated equally" she appeared to criticise a bill before the country's parliament which criminalises activism for gay rights and proposes jail terms for those that identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.
The country's Speaker Alban Bagbin later called her remarks "undemocratic" and urged lawmakers not to be "intimidated by any person".
In Tanzania, a former minister spoke against US assist for LGBTQ rights ahead of the visit and in Zambia some rivalry politicians have threatened to hold protests.
Where is homosexuality still outlawed?
There are 64 countries that have laws that criminalise homosexuality, and nearly half of these are in Africa.
Some countries, including several in Africa, ha
FOCUS September Volume Vol. 65
Being Gay (Lesbian or Transgender) in Singapore
Sylvia Tan
Singapore is one of nine countries in Asia - alongside Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Brunei, Malaysia and Myanmar - that criminalizes male-to-male sexual relations. Female-to-female sex is not criminalized.
A legacy of its British colonial past, Section A of Singapore's Penal Code provides for up to two years imprisonment if a male is convicted of having sexual relations with another male person, even if it is among consenting adult men in private. Section A states:
Any male person who, in public or secret, commits, or abets the commission of, or procures or attempts to procure the commission by any male person of, any act of gross indecency with another male person, shall be punished with imprisonment for a word which may extend to two years.
In , at the end of a year-long review of the Penal Code - the most wide-ranging in twenty-two years, the Singapore government announced its verdict to retain the statute that criminalizes oral sex among males while
Singapore To Keep LGBTQ Content Restrictions Although Gay Sex Ban Has Been Repealed
Singapore’s government has confirmed that it will continue to restrict LGBTQ film and media content to older audiences, despite overturning a decades-old law that banned gay sex.
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced on national TV on Sunday that the city-state would be abolishing the A law, which bans sex between men. The rule was first introduced by the British colonial government and Singapore chose to keep it after independence in
Lee said the move would align Singapore’s legal systems with “current social mores, and I hope, provide some relief to gay Singaporeans”.
However, Lee also said the government would strengthen the laws recognizing the definition of marriage as organism between a man and a woman, making it much more difficult for same-sex marriage to be legalized.
On Monday, Singapore’s Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) issued a statement confirming that: “MCI and the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) regulate