Gender equality advocacy group AWARE responded with concern to a recent event held calling to uphold Singapore’s colonial-era law criminalizing sex between men.
In a statement released on July 28, the Association of Women for Action and Research said “LGBTQ rights do not impinge on the rights of straight people any more than the existence of one colour impinges on another.”
At the July 23 event, dubbed Protect Singapore Townhall, organizers urged the government “to maintain the current political package and not to repeal Section 377A unless and until there are adequate safeguards for our marriages, families, and freedom of conscience. This includes enshrining man-woman marriage in the Constitution.”
Around 1,200 people attended the event, to which the media had not been invited.
AWARE took issue with a pamphlet distributed during the town hall, which called for the “protection” of heterosexual marriage, family, and children from the allegedly negative impact of LGBTQ activism.
The group wrote that this type of rhetoric “falsely assumes that the rights and recognition of one group impinges on those of another, as if freedom was a limited quantity that only so many people might enjoy at one time. Logically, this does not follow.”
AWARE also said that the anti-gay movement treats heterosexual marriage and family characterised as “traditional institutions” in the country, while the LGBTQ community is treated as “others” or as concepts imported from the west.
“Yet diverse sexualities have been an integral part of all human history, not least in this part of the world.”
The group also underlined what is problematic with Section 377A, writing that it “not only stigmatises sexual activity between consenting gay men, who deserve to live a life with dignity,” but “it also has repercussions on the broader LGBTQ community,” who have been subject to bullying and discrimination.
“When people cannot be open about their sexual orientation, they face increased stress, limited social support and negative mental and physical health consequences. Repealing S377A, and taking other actions to include LGBTQ people in society, will be an enormous step towards alleviating this burden.
The planned renegotiation of Singapore’s social compact gives us an important opportunity to create a more inclusive, fair and humane society. We cannot achieve this aspiration, though, if we take for a starting point the denial of the existence and humanity of an entire community,” AWARE added.
Section 377A does not seem to be up for repeal, although activists have called for it.
The position of the government has been that it will not be enforced and people will not be persecuted, Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam underlined in a BBC interview last month. /TISG