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“I believe this is the right thing to do, and something that most Singaporeans will now accept. This will bring the law into line with current social mores, and I hope, provide some relief to gay Singaporeans.” In his National Day Rally speech on August 21, Singapore’s prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, signaled a seismic shift in the country’s legal stance on male homosexuality when he announced the repeal of a colonial-era statute criminalizing acts of “gross indecency” between men. Section 377A of the penal code was introduced in the Straits Settlements in 1938, intended as a tool to maintain social hygiene among the resident European population by reining in the patronage of male Asian prostitutes. The government’s decision, not unanticipated, came in the wake of several court challenges to the law in recent decades, with the Court of Appeal ruling most recently in February that Section 377A was “unenforceable in its
