Should Gay Sex Be Legalized?

To decriminalize or not to decriminalize gay sex? That IS the question. But is that really the heart of the question? Maybe it isn't as simple as Yes or No. There are ramifications to every decisions, obviously and the outcome of this little debate itself does signal that indeed, as a nation, Singapore is starting to "westernize" and to become more broad minded.

I've heard people from our older generation lamenting about it, that by decriminalizing it, we are subtly sending out wrong messages to the younger generation that homosexuality isn't taboo anymore. Do we only depend on laws to help educate the younger generation?

Singaporeans are baffling -- on one hand we demand freedom of speech, we demand free press, but on another, we act conservatively, we demand capital punishment for the "evilest" of humans in our society and like now, we impose laws that almost "banish" gays to their little corners.

Let face it here -- whether laws are impose or not, gays will always be around. And really maybe what the conservatives feel is not so much that we decriminalize the act of homosexuality, but much more so that we are going down a slippery slope, that this marks the start of us transcending towards the "light-skinned" side. And it is exactly that that scares them.

Let's not depend so much on laws to govern us. Yes they do guide us on right from wrong but parents, if you have to depend on laws to ensure that your kids stay on the "enlightened" track, then you aren't doing all you can. A lot of how kids turn out now a days depends on their upbringing and the values inculcated into them by their parents. (no.... not the law!)

Best quote from a simple uncle I met recently at a petshop opposite from where I work

" By looking at a child, I can tell you much about their parents..."

I totally agree.

*** *** *** *** *** *** ***

Singapore's former prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, father of current Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, said this week that gay sex should be decriminalized. Gay sex in Singapore is now classified as "an act of gross indecency" and is punishable by up to two years in prison.

Lee Kuan Yew, prime minister from 1959 to 1990 and now Minister Mentor in Singapore's Cabinet, spoke at a youth rally Saturday and suggested that the government should refrain from making moral judgments.

He said the city-state should change its approach on homosexuality, especially considering scientific evidence suggesting that it is genetic.

""This business of homosexuality . . . it raises tempers all over the world. And even in America! If in fact it is true, and I have asked doctors this, that you are genetically born a homosexual -- because that's the nature of the genetic random transmission of genes -- you can't help it," he said in remarks published by The Straits Times.

"So why should we criminalize it?" Lee asked.

"But there is such a strong inhibition, in all societies -- Christianity, Islam, even the Hindu (and) Chinese societies. And we are now confronted with a persisting aberration. But is it an aberration? It's a genetic variation."

Only last year, Singapore announced it would decriminalize oral and anal sex for adult heterosexuals, but gay sex remains illegal.

Lee said he would introduce amendments to the gay sex laws, which are pending in parliament.

"So what do we do?" Lee added.

"I think we pragmatically adjust, carry our people . . . don't upset them and suddenly upset their sense of propriety and right and wrong. But at the same time, let's not go around like this moral police . . . barging into people's rooms. That's not our business. You have to take a practical, pragmatic approach to what I see is an inevitable force of time and circumstance."