The LGBTQ+ community in Singapore has been celebrating since last Sunday, the day Lee Hsien Loong, its prime minister, announced the repeal of the law that punished sex between men with sentences of up to two years in prison.
Inherited from the British colonial period, the LGBTQ+ community in the region had been fighting for its repeal for years; Such a fight reached its peak when in 2018 India revoked the same decree.
The repeal has been accompanied by brief but hopeful words from the prime minister: “Although we remain a largely conservative society, gay people are now more accepted in Singapore, especially among younger Singaporeans.”
One lime and one sand
The news of the repeal of Section 377 of the Singapore Penal Code has now put the focus on the possibility of legalizing same-sex marriage. Unfortunately, during his appearance, the Prime Minister assured that the Government has no intention of changing the definition of marriage and that it will continue to be conceived as a union between a man and a woman: “According to the law, only marriages between a man and a woman are recognized in Singapore.”.
The LGBTQ+ situation in Asia
Homosexuality is legal in most Far Eastern countries. Indeed, South Korea, Japan, and Thailand are in a similar situation to some European and Latin American countries, and same-sex civil unions may soon be legalized.
On the other side there are countries like Burma and Uzbekistan, where homosexuality is illegal and lesser penalties apply. In Southeast Asia, homosexuality is illegal in Malaysia and legal in Indonesia, where the influence of Islam translates into strong social homophobia; in the Philippines homosexuality was penalized until the last constitutional reform.
In Laos, same-sex relations were decriminalized and legalized, while in North Korea and Vietnam there has been no mention in the legal texts that criminalize homosexuality under the communist regime.
