I would rather not support a regime that imprisons gays....
I haven't read of a single case where Singapore imprisoned a gay person in the last 20 years.
"Singapore has a lingering PR problem from its years of threatening gay citizens with the
rotten rattan of its buggery-obsessed former colonial masters. Let’s lay that nonsense to rest:
these days you won't be arrested for sharing a bed with your lover or chewing gum with that
gorgeous salesgirl you just chatted up at Starbucks.
"What will you get in place of homophobia and newspaper exposes? Southeast Asia's best cuisines collected together in one place, safe and clean multi-ethnic neighborhoods ripe for exploring, shopping malls up the wazoo, cheap world-class hotels, sport-spa-and-health legal highs, and rollicking nightlife."
".... Global access to information and the rapid economic advancement of this small island
nation have created a mobile and progressive generation of educated, fit, English-speaking
women of diverse cultural backgrounds. The art of conversation is alive and well here and you
will make fast friends who won't be afraid to challenge your thinking with their own opinions.
Green, modern and organized, The Lion City is also a haven for well-to-do expats.
"Officials stopped harassing gay venues at the end of the last century. The government has
been officially hiring open homosexuals into the civil service for years now and gay and
lesbian talents are sought after in the work force as the country strives to maintain its
Asian "tiger" status through increased diversity. This new pragmatism seems set to continue.
"The population of Singapore is over 4.5 million people, which means that more than 180,000
Utopians live on this island along with an even larger number of self-professed metrosexual
bi gals who also participate in the local lesbian scene."
http://www.utopia-asia.com/womsing.htm
I assume those last figures exclude all the ladyboys i've seen in Geylang plus those reported
at Orchard Towers, etc, which is popularly known as the "Four Floors of Whores".
http://sgwiki.com/wiki/Singapore_lesbian_history
http://sgwiki.com/wiki/Section_377A_of_the_Singapore_Penal_Code
http://sgwiki.com/wiki/Singapore_gay_history
"Gay discos started to experience occasional police raids, the most well-known of which
occurred at Rascals disco in the basement of the Pan Pacific Hotel on 30 May 1993, where
policemen shouted at patrons and were inappropriately rude. A gay lawyer, Wilfred Ong, who was
present, later enlisted the support of 21 other gay professionals in writing a letter of
complaint to the Chief of Police[16]. To everyone's surprise, they received an apology. This
would be the last documented case of police harassment at gay discos for many years to come.
This episode has been dubbed "Singapore's Stonewall"....
"On 11 December 1998, Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew responded to a gay man's question about
the place of homosexuals in Singapore, live on CNN International by saying, '...what we are
doing as a government is to leave people to live their own lives so long as they don't impinge
on other people. I mean, we don't harass anybody'. These momentous words would set the tenor
for official policy on homosexuality for many years to come and may be regarded as the most
significant event, as far as gay rights are concerned, of the decade, if not of the century..."
http://sgwiki.com/wiki/Singapore_gay_history#The_2010s
"On 9 March 2010, Tan and another man were arrested under Section 377A, for engaging in oral
sex in a cubicle in a public shopping mall toilet. Each was later charged for committing an
act of gross indecency with another male person under Section 377A.
"Tan then applied to court for a declaration that Section 377A was unconstitutional....
"The Court of Appeal has now found that Tan was entitled to continue with his constitutional
challenge to Section 377A."
http://www.theonlinecitizen.com/201...es-the-constitutions-equal-protection-clause/
No jail time mentioned:
"....both Tan and his co-accused had already pleaded guilty to the obsenity charges, and each
was sentenced to a $3000 fine....
"a man who was robbed after having sex with another man reported the theft to the police and
received a warning under s 377A"
http://www.theonlinecitizen.com/201...es-the-constitutions-equal-protection-clause/
In an apparent reneging of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's word and the government's promise
never to apply Section 377A again, the police employed a decoy to entrap an Indian Malaysian
man allegedly cruising for gay sex around the disused cemetary at Jalan Kubor in 2010. This
episode of the police entrapment of gay men occurred after almost a decade of cessation of the
operations.
Section 377A was again used to charge two men having for having oral sex in a toilet cubicle
at Mustafa Centre. The gay community was indignant because the non-gay discriminatory Section
294(a), which criminalises "any obscene act in any public place" irrespective of gender (see
below) could have easily been used instead....
Tan was originally charged under Section 377A but to avoid the inconvenience of a
constitutional challenge which would set a precedent and open the floodgates to other
constitutional challenges, the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) withdrew the 377A charges in
mid-October and substituted charges under Section 294(a) instead.
Section 294(a) of the Penal Code states:
"Whoever, to the annoyance of others does any obscene act in any public place...shall be
punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 3 months, or with fine, or with both....
On Tuesday, 21 August 2012, after nearly a year of deliberation, Singapore’s Court of Appeal, in a 106-page judgement, overturned High Court judge Lai Siu Chiu’s decision on 15 March 2011 when she ruled that there was no "real controversy" which required the court’s attention....
They said Tan would be allowed to vindicate his rights before the courts based on a finding that there was an arguable violation of his constitutional rights.
http://sgwiki.com/wiki/Section_377A_of_the_Singapore_Penal_Code#Consequences_of_retention
--------------------------
"79 countries where homosexuality is illegal":
http://76crimes.com/76-countries-where-homosexuality-is-illegal/
"AIDS Rate 50 Times Higher in Homosexual Men: Center for Disease Control"
http://www.topix.com/forum/state/ms/T8IGHKIB0EB8LF3DM#!
http://www.returnofkings.com/3882/the-truth-about-aids#!
http://www.science20.com/news_accou...and_heterosexuals_ignores_risky_behavior_data
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100108114249AAMISv4
