SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/Asia News Network): Section 377A, a decades-old law criminalising gay sex, has officially been struck from the books, as President Halimah Yacob had assented on Dec 27 to the Bill that proposed the repeal.
At the same time, changes to the Constitution to protect the current definition of marriage from legal challenge are now in force, according to notices published on the Government e-Gazette website on Tuesday evening.
This comes after Parliament voted on Nov 29 in favour of both moves following a 10-hour debate over two days.
Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam said at the close of the debate that Parliament’s overall choice showed that it is the one to decide on issues of marriage, rather than to leave the matter to the courts and have Singaporeans “live with the potential threat of unconstitutionality, and have that change imposed on our society – as has happened in other countries”.
During the vote, the People’s Action Party did not lift the party whip, which meant PAP MPs had to vote according to the party’s position.
The Workers’ Party, which has nine MPs in Parliament, lifted its whip.
The move to repeal Section 377A was mooted by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong during his National Day Rally speech in 2022.
He said in August that the Government will repeal Section 377A and decriminalise sex between men, as attitudes towards homosexuality have shifted appreciably.
Most people accept that a person’s sexual orientation and behaviour is a private matter, and that sex between men should not be a criminal offence, he added.
At the same time, most Singaporeans do not want the repeal to trigger a drastic shift in societal norms across the board, PM Lee had said of the Government’s consultations with the public, including on the definition of marriage and what is taught in schools.
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