The biggest legislative improvement for queer people in Singapore this century:
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The biggest legislative improvement for queer people in Singapore this century:
- the government finally removed the anti-sodomy British era law a few years ago
- they ‘gave’ us this in consultation with religious groups who were assured that ‘we’ will not ask for marriage or adoption rights
- they also made it impossible for any of this to be fought for through the courts
- and made something already hard (same sex adoption and surrogacy) pretty much now impossibleEven for straight people, women who do IVF need ‘permission’ from their husbands. Most queer people had to go to Thailand to do it.
This conversation captures perspectives from ‘all sides’, but let’s be real, it’s the evangelical Chinese Singaporean Christians who are the primary homophobes and transphobes.
In the mid ‘10s I was more optimistic about change. I am no longer.
To be sure, the repeal of 377A was massive! It also feels like massive cost.
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The biggest legislative improvement for queer people in Singapore this century:
- the government finally removed the anti-sodomy British era law a few years ago
- they ‘gave’ us this in consultation with religious groups who were assured that ‘we’ will not ask for marriage or adoption rights
- they also made it impossible for any of this to be fought for through the courts
- and made something already hard (same sex adoption and surrogacy) pretty much now impossibleEven for straight people, women who do IVF need ‘permission’ from their husbands. Most queer people had to go to Thailand to do it.
This conversation captures perspectives from ‘all sides’, but let’s be real, it’s the evangelical Chinese Singaporean Christians who are the primary homophobes and transphobes.
In the mid ‘10s I was more optimistic about change. I am no longer.
To be sure, the repeal of 377A was massive! It also feels like massive cost.
So any further change is only possible in the future with parliamentary action.
Given that Singapore has been a one party state since its founding*, this means not until massive political change has happened (although opposition parties are not obviously pro queer people); or until the benevolent leaders decide that it’s now ‘time’ to
‘Bless us’ with rights.And with the current local groundswell of anger towards them on cost of living and housing issues, I do not expect that queer people will get anything any time. In the meantime, maybe all I hope for is ‘don’t make it actively worse’.
* technically there was one other party but..
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So any further change is only possible in the future with parliamentary action.
Given that Singapore has been a one party state since its founding*, this means not until massive political change has happened (although opposition parties are not obviously pro queer people); or until the benevolent leaders decide that it’s now ‘time’ to
‘Bless us’ with rights.And with the current local groundswell of anger towards them on cost of living and housing issues, I do not expect that queer people will get anything any time. In the meantime, maybe all I hope for is ‘don’t make it actively worse’.
* technically there was one other party but..
I don’t know enough about what it means to be trans there other than the personal experiences of some of my friends
But this is a good resource
https://singaporelegaladvice.com/law-articles/transgender-laws-rights-singapore/
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R relay@relay.an.exchange shared this topic
