The rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people in Singapore have evolved over the decades. Same-sex sexual activity is legal for both males and females. Until January 2023, sexual activity between men was illegal under Section 377A of the Penal Code, while sexual activity between women was never illegal. In February 2022, the Court of Appeal in the Supreme Court ruled that 377A was "unenforceable in its entirety", and the law was officially repealed in January 2023. Singapore does not recognise same-sex marriage or civil unions. Transgender rights in Singapore are also progressive in the region; in 1973 it became the first Asian country to legalise sex reassignment surgery.
On 21 August 2022, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced that the Government intended to repeal Section 377A of the Penal Code, effectively ending criminalisation both de facto and de jure. On 22 August 2022, Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam added that the Constitution would be amended to protect Parliament's right to define marriage instead of the judiciary, which is the Supreme Court, leaving open the possibility for Parliament to legalise same-sex marriages or civil unions through a simple majority. On 29 November 2022, the repeal of Section 377A of the Penal Code was passed in Parliament.
Same-sex marriages are not recognised, including the adoption of children by same-sex couples, although a gay Singaporean man with a male partner in 2018 won a landmark appeal to adopt a child that he had fathered through a surrogate. In 2018, Education Minister Ong Ye Kung reassured the LGBTQ community that discrimination against the LGBTQ community at work, in housing and education will not be tolerated. Since 2019, protections against anti-gay violence and aggravated discrimination were also put into legislation; Shanmugam stated that "LGBTQ persons, non-LGBTQ persons, we are all equal. We are not any lesser by reason of our sexual orientation."
While Singaporean society is generally regarded as conservative, LGBTQ pride festivals such as Pink Dot have taken place every year since 2009 with increasing attendance amounting to the tens of thousands. In line with worldwide trends, attitudes towards members of the LGBTQ community among Singaporeans are slowly changing and becoming more socially accepting and tolerant.
Legality of same-sex sexual activity
Singapore law inherited from the British Empire in 1871 prohibited sodomy regardless of sex. As such, heterosexual and homosexual anal or oral sex was illegal. In 2007, such sexual activity was legalised except for sex between men. The punishment was two years' imprisonment.
In 2018 Attorney-General Lucien Wong declared that he still had the legal power to prosecute under Section 377A. This statement was made amid public debate over the law and in response to opinions of former attorneys-general that the public prosecutor had, in effect, been limited from pursuit of such cases. Wong said that while "the public prosecutor did not pursue cases between consenting adults and in private places as it was not in the public interest" an attorney-general could direct that such a prosecution be mounted, "if reports are lodged with police, particularly in relation to minors". The statement was made prior to the ruling by the Singapore Court of Appeals that the section was unenforceable as a proscription of same-sex sexual activity. Public indecency and protection of minors were the only cases pursued under the section from 2007, even prior to the ruling.
In June 2019, at the Smart Nation Summit, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong reiterated that Singapore would keep Section 377A "for some time" saying, "Whatever your sexual orientation is, you're welcome to come and work in Singapore... You know our rules in Singapore. It is the way this society is: We are not like San Francisco, neither are we like some countries in the Middle East. [We are] something in between, it is the way the society is."
While Singaporean courts ruled in 2022 that section 377A was entirely unenforceable as regards private consensual same-sex sexual activity, police are able to act on reports of public indecency (public acts by persons of any gender) from the community. Prosecution under this section of any matters involving minors is also still possible. All recent prosecutions under the section — between 2007 and 2013 — were incidences of these types.
On 21 August 2022 Lee announced at the National Day Rally that the Government intended to repeal Section 377A, noting that there would be significant risk of the law being struck down in future legal challenges "on the grounds that it breaches Article 12 of the Constitution – the Equal Protection provision". Lee added that the repeal would be deliberated through Parliament. After a two-day debate on 28 and 29 November, Section 377A was officially repealed in Parliament.
Statutes
After an exhaustive Penal Code review in 2007, oral and anal sex were legalised between opposite-sex persons and between women. The changes meant that oral and anal sex between consenting heterosexual and female homosexual adults were no longer offences. However, Section 377A, which deals with these sexual acts, continued to criminalise them between consenting men. Despite this, the section had not been enforced since at least 2007. Lee stated amid the debates on the changes to the section that the law would not be proactively enforced. The parliamentary debates and the prime minister's statement played a role in the 2022 ruling of the Court of Appeal in the Supreme Court that the law was unenforceable.
In his concluding speech on the debate over the partial repeal of Section 377A, Lee told the members of parliament (MPs) before the vote that "Singapore is basically a conservative society... The family is the basic building block of this society. And by a family in Singapore, we mean one man, one woman, marrying, having children and bringing up children within that framework of a stable family unit."
Section 377A ("Outrages on decency") Section 377A states that: "Any male person who, in public or private, commits, or abets the commission of, or procures or attempts to procure the commission by any male person of, any act of gross indecency with another male person, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 2 years." According to the United States Department of State, and Human Dignity Trust, the last attempted prosecution for consensual same-sex sexual activity occurred in 2010. Between 2007 and 2013, all nine convictions under 377A provisions, involved minors or public acts of gross indecency.
Section 354 of the Penal Code ("Outrage of Modesty") Section 354 provides that if any person uses criminal force on any person intending to outrage, or knowing it would be likely to outrage, the modesty of that person, he shall be imprisoned for a maximum of two years, or with fine, or with caning, or with any two of such punishments. Crimes charged under section 354 require some physical contact involved.
Section 294 of the Penal Code If the victim of an entrapment operation uses a symbolic gesture to signal intention to have sexual activity with the police decoy, he can be tried under Section 294 of the Penal Code, which covers the commission of any obscene act in any public place to the annoyance of others, subject to a maximum of three months imprisonment, a fine, or both.
Miscellaneous Offences (Public Order and Nuisance) Act According to the National University of Singapore sociologist Laurence Leong Wai Teng, from 1990 to 1994 there were 11 cases where gay men were charged for soliciting. They were fined between $200 and $500.
Efforts to repeal 377A Prior to 2022, human rights activists had called for the repeal of Section 377A, arguing that it infringes on privacy, the right to life and personal liberty, the latter two of which are constitutionally protected. In 2007, the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) called for the repeal of Section 377A.
In 2012, Tan Eng Hong was found in the company of another man, and was initially charged with Section 377A but later pled guilty to a lesser charge. Tan decided to pursue his case against Section 377A on the grounds that it was inconsistent with Articles 9, 12, and 14 of the Singapore Constitution. These articles guarantee the right to life and personal liberty, and provide that all people are entitled to equal protection before the law. In deciding whether an appeal of Tan's case could be heard in the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal found that Section 377A may "arguably" violate the right to equality before law as offered in Article 12. The ruling however did not go into the merits of the case on technical grounds.
Tan's case was heard in the Supreme Court jointly with another appeal challenging Section 377A, and a ruling was given on 29 October 2014. The ruling upheld the country's ban on same-sex relations between consenting adult men. The court held that Section 377A does not violate Articles 9 and 12 of the Singapore Constitution. The applicant's attorney argued that Section 377A criminalises a group of people for an innate attribute, though the court concluded that "there is, at present, no definitive conclusion" on the "supposed immutability" of homosexuality. The court ultimately held that law reforms permitting private homosexual sex were a question for the Singapore Parliament to address.
In September 2018, following the high-profile repeal of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code by the Supreme Court of India, more than 50,000 people, including a former attorney-general and several former diplomats, signed a petition called "READY4REPEAL" urging the repeal of Section 377A as part of a major penal code review. However, government officials at the time refused to do so. The diplomat Tommy Koh and the former attorney-general Walter Woon have called on members of the LGBTQ community to challenge the law.
Soon after the repeal of Section 377 in India in 2018, a Singaporean DJ, Johnson Ong Ming, filed a suit with the High Court arguing that Singapore's Section 377A is "in violation of human dignity". Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 377A of the Singapore Penal Code are effectively identical, as both were put in place by the British Empire, raising hopes in Singapore that the discriminatory law would be struck down as well. Singapore's High Court gave the petitioner until 20 November to submit his arguments.
In November 2018 the LGBTQ rights activist Bryan Choong Chee Hong filed another case with the Supreme Court, arguing that Section 377A is "inconsistent" with portions of the Constitution, and "is therefore void". According to court documents, the petitioner argues that Section 377A is inconsistent with Article 9, Article 12, and Article 14 of the Constitution.
A third legal challenge was launched in September 2019 by Roy Tan Seng Kee, a retired medical doctor. Tan stated in a statement that, "by institutionalising discrimination, it alienates [LGBTQ people] from having a sense of belonging and purposeful place in our society, and prevents them from taking pride in Singapore's achievements."
All three cases were dismissed by the High Court on 30 March 2020 in a closed-door judgment by Justice See Kee Oon.
377A officially repealed On 21 August 2022 Lee announced that the government would table a motion in Parliament to repeal Section 377A, effectively decriminalising male homosexual acts. On 20 October 2022 the government tabled the bill. After a two-day debate, Section 377A of the Penal Code was officially repealed in Parliament on 29 November 2022.
Recognition of same-sex relationships