the end of a 12-year fight for Roy Tan, the first to challenge the law criminalizing same-sex relations

This is a case that dates back to 2010 and that the Singaporean lawyer Master Ravi is not ready to forget. “I saw a man come into my office crying. He was on his knees, totally upset. He was playing big, he was on the verge of bankruptcy and without any support, because he had to remain very discreet”he explains to franceinfo.

This man in question is called Tan Eng Hong, says Roy Tan. It’s the first Singaporean at having dared to challenge the law prohibiting sexual relations between men which overwhelmed him by proceeding with a constitutional complaint. If this one did not succeed, it nevertheless paved the way for other legal actions of the same ilk, until finally this announcement of the decriminalization of male homosexuality, which dates from the colonial era. British.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced on Sunday August 21 that his government would soon repeal Section 377A of the Penal Code, which provides for a maximum sentence of two years in prison for sexual relations between men, even if no person is has been arrested or prosecuted for over a decade.

But if Me Ravi and his client celebrated this change, the decision to reinforce at the same time in the constitution the traditional vision of the family was experienced as a disappointment for all local LGBT organizations. The government will indeed amend the constitution to protect the conception of marriage as it is currently defined by law – between a man and a woman. The lawyer denounces this measure and recalls that “Singapore is an international center and a multi-ethnic country. It’s just a small local Christian minority that is hindering these advances, and they don’t even make up 10% of the population.”

In Singapore, the law criminalizing male homosexuality was a holdover from English colonization, like the criminalization of suicide, repealed two years ago. Sanctions by strokes of the cane are still relevant.