Challenges to Section 377A: Key points from this week's hearings

SINGAPORE — Five years after the Court of Appeal threw out two constitutional challenges against Section 377A of the Penal Code, which criminalises consensual sex between men, the High Court heard three more such cases earlier this week.

Singapore’s Parliament had in 2007 repealed Section 377, which criminalised sexual acts “against the order of nature”, including heterosexual oral and anal sex, but almost unanimously voted to keep Section 377A, which criminalises acts of “gross indecency” between males. Only former Nominated Member of Parliament Siew Kum Hong recorded his dissent to retaining the law then.

Section 377A was aimed at curbing male prostitutionRelying on documents from the UK national archives that were declassified in 2014 and 2016, the lawyers for Bryan Choong Chee Hoong, a former executive director of non-profit LGBTQ social support group Oogachaga, pointed out that the purpose of enacting section 377A in 1938 by the colonial legislature was to target “rampant” male prostitution among British civil servants here.

“In this regard, while the law leaves free every other Singaporean to express such choices consistent with their sexual orientation, section 377A brings the force of the criminal law to condemn and limit the choices of a targeted minority i.e. adult, male homosexuals. That is impermissible under Article 14.”

Thus, the lawyers argued that sexual orientation is a trait that is similar and analogous to height, intelligence and handedness. Credible scientific studies on epigenetics further support the hypothesis that sexual orientation causes are biological. Social environmental factors also play no role in the causality of male homosexual orientation and/or attraction, the lawyers contended.

In a statement last year, Attorney-General Lucien Wong said the Public Prosecutor retains the unfettered discretion to prosecute for intimate conduct between two consenting adults in private; however, absent other factors present, it does not view such prosecution to be in public interest. Section 424 of the Criminal Procedure Code imposes a duty on those who are aware of an arrestable offence being committed, or of the intention of another person to commit such an offence, to immediately report the matter to the police.

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Attorney-General's Chambers on 377A challenges: Constitutional rights do not include sexual freedom or privacySINGAPORE — Lawyers representing the Government in three Section 377A challenges argued that an Indian court’s decision to lift a ban on consensual gay sex last September is irrelevant to Singapore as the two countries take vastly different approaches to constitutional interpretation and review.
Source: TODAYonline - 🏆 1. / 99 Read more »

Attorney-General on 377A challenges: Constitutional rights do not include sexual freedom or privacySINGAPORE — Lawyers representing the Government in three Section 377A challenges argued that an Indian court’s decision to lift a ban on consensual gay sex last September is irrelevant to Singapore as the two countries take vastly different approaches to constitutional interpretation and review.
Source: TODAYonline - 🏆 1. / 99 Read more »

Attorney-General's Chambers on 377A challenges: Constitutional rights do not include sexual freedom or privacySINGAPORE — Lawyers representing the Government in three Section 377A challenges argued that an Indian court’s decision to lift a ban on consensual gay sex last September is irrelevant to Singapore as the two countries take vastly different approaches to constitutional interpretation and review.
Source: TODAYonline - 🏆 1. / 99 Read more »