ABC Radio Australia: Singapore's parliament has decided against a proposal to decriminalise sex between consenting gay men (Oct 29)

Singapore's parliament has decided against a proposal to decriminalise sex between consenting gay men.

The proposal was pitched as part of a wider reform of sections of the penal code deemed outdated, some of which dating back to British colonial rule.

Alex Au, Singapore businessman and gay rights activist spoke to Radio Australia's Connect Asia, he says the vote means Singapore's anti-gay legislation, 377A will remain in force.

"They have promised that it will not be enforced 'pro-actively', and I'm quoting those words from them," he said.

Rights activists had compiled a petition in support of decriminalisation.

"We had something like 2,500 physical signatures on paper collected just over a weekend. And it was a petition presented to parliament through a gay-friendly member of parliament, and it forced parliament to debate the issue, when it could so easily have skirted it," he said.

"In fact parliament devoted two days for debate on the amendments to the penal code and that's various things on the penal code from marital rape, to murder, to theft and so on and so forth. But in fact, most of the members of parliament who rose to speak touched on the subject of 377A. So basically, the subject dominated procedures in parliament for two whole days," he said.

Parliament has however now made it legal for heterosexuals to engage in a variety of sexual practices that were previously banned.

"That was what really was the cause of much dissatisfaction in the gay community that the parliament has now decided that sodomy, oral and anal sex shall be legal from this point on in Singapore, so long as one partner is male and the other partner is female. But the same kind of acts between two male persons will still be punishable by jail terms," he said.


You can hear the full story at the Connect Asia website: http://radioaustralia.net.au/connectasia