PROGRESS

Singapore Set to Decriminalize Sex Between Men

The conservative island nation is expected to repeal penal code section 377A, which criminalized sex acts between consenting men, though it won’t change its stance on gay marriage.

Singapore is set to repeal a colonial-era law that criminalized consensual sexual acts between men, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in a statement Sunday, though the city-state has no intentions to change the legal definition of sex as strictly between men and women, or decriminalize gay marriage. Although it hasn’t been enforced in decades, under the current law, men can face up to two years in jail for sexual relations with other men. Loong did not put a date to the announced repeal of penal code section 377A. “I believe this is the right thing to do, and something that most Singaporeans will now accept,” the prime minister said, due to changing attitudes among young people. The repeal doesn’t impact women in Singapore, as the 1938 law in the conservative island nation never applied to them.