{"id":10959,"date":"2018-09-09T13:48:51","date_gmt":"2018-09-09T08:03:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pahichan.com\/?p=10959"},"modified":"2018-09-09T13:48:51","modified_gmt":"2018-09-09T08:03:51","slug":"veteran-singaporean-diplomat-calls-on-lgbti-community-to-challenge-gay-sex-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/veteran-singaporean-diplomat-calls-on-lgbti-community-to-challenge-gay-sex-ban\/","title":{"rendered":"Veteran Singaporean diplomat calls on LGBTI community to challenge gay sex ban"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Kathmandu (Pahichan) September 9 &#8211; A veteran Singaporean diplomat has called on the country\u2019s LGBTI community to challenge the law banning male homosexual sex.<\/p>\n<p>In a Facebook comment, Ambassador-at-Large Tommy Koh encouraged Singapore\u2019s LGBTI community to \u2018bring a class action to challenge the constitutionality of Section 377A.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Koh was replying to a Facebook post by Simon Chesterman, the dean of the Faculty of Law\u00a0at the National University of Singapore.<\/p>\n<p>His comments come days after the historic decision by India\u2019s Supreme Court to repeal Section 377, a law criminalizing homosexuality which was introduced when India was under British colonial rule.<\/p>\n<p>Singapore has a similar law, Section 377A that bans homosexual sex between men, which was also introduced while Singapore was a British colony.<\/p>\n<p>Although the law is rarely enforced, it essentially criminalizes gay men in Singapore.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_417338\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-417338 gs-image-75\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gaystarnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Screen-Shot-2018-09-08-at-2.49.12-PM-300x138.png\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gaystarnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Screen-Shot-2018-09-08-at-2.49.12-PM-300x138.png 300w, https:\/\/www.gaystarnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Screen-Shot-2018-09-08-at-2.49.12-PM-768x352.png 768w, https:\/\/www.gaystarnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Screen-Shot-2018-09-08-at-2.49.12-PM-218x100.png 218w, https:\/\/www.gaystarnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Screen-Shot-2018-09-08-at-2.49.12-PM.png 1016w\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"138\" data-imageshare=\"gs-image-75\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Koh\u2019s comments on Facebook<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The chief of Singapore\u2019s government communications,\u00a0Janadas Devan, expressed his support of\u00a0Koh\u2019s message.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Speaking personally, I support Tommy\u2019s position. 377A is a bad law; it is bad law. Sooner or later, it will go. Pray sooner rather than later,\u2019 Devan wrote on Facebook.<\/p>\n<p>In response to these comments,\u00a0LGBTI rights activist Jean Chong told GSN:\u00a0<span class=\"_5yl5\">\u2018I think it\u2019s encouraging that more prominent persons are speaking out against keeping 377A.\u00a0<\/span>I think the support for repeal is growing, but not sufficient.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"_5yl5\">\u2018I know one law firm is planning to challenge 377A. S<\/span>everal law firms are interested,\u2019 she added.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fjanadas.devan%2Fposts%2F1350492345081837&amp;width=500\" width=\"500\" height=\"511\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>Gaining momentum<\/h2>\n<p>In recent months, Singapore has seen an increasing number of calls\u00a0to repeal Section 377A.<\/p>\n<p>In July, Singapore\u2019s main gay pride event, Pink Dot,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gaystarnews.com\/article\/we-are-ready-singapores-lgbti-community-celebrates-10th-pride-rally\/#gs.vy4I0Ig\">made a direct call<\/a>\u00a0to the government to repeal the law. In early August, a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gaystarnews.com\/article\/exclusive-lgbti-activists-send-declarations-to-singapore-pm\/#gs.nALEzjg\">coalition of LGBTI rights groups wrote an open letter<\/a>\u00a0to Singapore\u2019s prime minister calling for greater LGBTI equality.<\/p>\n<p>On Friday (7 September), Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam said Singapore\u2019s society\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gaystarnews.com\/article\/singapore-minister-says-society-to-decide-whether-to-decriminalize-gay-sex\/\">would determine whether the country was ready<\/a>\u00a0to repeal Section 377A.\u00a0The minister acknowledged\u00a0that a \u2018growing minority\u2019 opposed the law, but the government remained \u2018in the middle\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018If you look at the issue, it is a deeply split society.\u2019 Shanmugam said. \u2018The majority are opposed to any change to Section 377A. They are opposed to removing it.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Following this, Chong said she believed Section 377A will eventually be repealed. However, she maintains\u00a0that the authorities will also have to take a clearer stand on the issue.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018The government will need to be less of a coward and remember that they serve all Singaporeans, not just the majority,\u2019 said Chong.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I think minority rights shouldn\u2019t be decided by the majority. How many lessons do we have to learn from history that justice and the rights of people shouldn\u2019t be decided in this way?\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Source :\u00a0gaystarnews<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kathmandu (Pahichan) September 9 &#8211; A veteran Singaporean diplomat has called on the country\u2019s LGBTI community to challenge the law banning male homosexual sex.<br \/>\nIn a Facebook comment, Ambassador-at-Large Tommy Koh encouraged Singapore\u2019s LGBTI community to \u2018bring a class action to challenge the constitutionality of Section 377A.\u2019<br \/>\nKoh was replying to a Facebook post by Simon Chesterman, the dean of the Faculty of Law\u00a0at the National University of Singapore.<br \/>\nHis comments come days after the historic decision by India\u2019s Supreme Court to repeal Section 377, a law criminalizing homosexuality which was introduced when &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":10960,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,621,490,11],"tags":[1858,502],"class_list":["post-10959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-issue","category-news","category-slider","category-world","tag-homosexual-sex","tag-lgbti"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10959"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10961,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10959\/revisions\/10961"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}