According to the prime minister’s announcement on August 21 that the government of Singapore will decriminalize sex between men, homosexuality will henceforth be accepted in the city-state.
The government will delete Section 377A of the Penal Code, a colonial-era statute that criminalizes male-to-male intercourse, according to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who also noted that society was growing more accepting of homosexuals.
“I believe this is the right thing to do, and something that most Singaporeans will now accept,” he said in his annual National Day rally speech.
However, Lee said the government had no intention of changing the city-state’s legal definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
“Even as we repeal Section 377A, we will uphold and safeguard the institution of marriage (…). Under the law, only marriages between one man and one woman are recognised in Singapore,” Lee added.
Singapore retained the colonial-era ban on gay sex after it won independence from Britain in 1965.
Singapore is the latest place in Asia to move on LGBT rights, after India, Taiwan and Thailand.