Li Huanwu, Lee Kuan Yew’s grandson and Lee Hsien Yang’s son, has come out in support of Pink Dot 2017, urging members of the LGBT community and straight allies to attend the event which is in its ninth year in a show of solidarity.
Dear Singaporean / PR friends,It has been a difficult year for Pink Dot, which faced many challenges that seemed…
Posted by Li Huanwu on Friday, 30 June 2017
Lee Kuan Yew, himself, was supportive of people in same-sex relationships in Singapore. He had consistently stated in interviews his belief that homosexuality is a genetic variance and that homosexuals should not be persecuted.
In perhaps his most famous interview on the topic, Lee Kuan Yew frankly shared his thoughts on homosexuality at a PAP Youth Wing event in 2007:
“This business of homosexuality. It raises tempers all over the world, and even in America. If in fact it is true, and I’ve asked doctors this, that you are genetically born a homosexual, because that is the nature of genetic random transmission of genes. You can’t help it. So why should we criminalise it?
“But there is such a strong inhibition in all societies – Christianity, Islam, even the Hindu, Chinese societies. And we’re now confronted with a persisiting aberration, but is it an aberration? It’s a genetic variation.
“So what do we do? I think we pragmatically adjust…”