Gay couple says decriminalising sex between men is only 'small step', discrimination still exists

Record ID: 1685638

  • Title: Gay couple says decriminalising sex between men is only 'small step', discrimination still exists
  • Date: 22nd August 2022
  • Summary: VARIOUS FRAMED PHOTOS OF LING, SUTHERLAND AND TYLER
  • Embargoed: 5th September 2022 11:16
  • Keywords: 377A COUPLE HUMAN RIGHTS LAW LGBT LGBTQIA REPEAL SINGAPORE
  • Location: SINGAPORE
  • City: SINGAPORE
  • Country: Singapore
  • Topics: Asia / Pacific,Society/Social Issues,Editors' Choice
  • Reuters ID: LVA002978821082022RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Andre Ling and Cameron Sutherland live in Singapore with their nearly three-year-old son Tyler.
    While the gay couple appreciates the move by the government to decriminalise sex between men, they felt that discrimination still largely exists in the socially conservative city state.
    Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Sunday (August 21) that the country will repeal Section 377A of the penal code, a colonial-era law that criminalises sex between men, but also ruled out any plans to change the legal definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman.
    “I don't think it really makes much of a difference. It's just, it's just small, little step. I think a lot of people may think that it's a big step. But I think for us that in terms of, you know, us being with a child, I think that's not much of a case, it doesn't actually help very much,” Ling said from their home on Monday (August 22).
    LGBTQ groups welcomed the repeal but also expressed concern that ruling out same-sex marriage would help to perpetuate discrimination, something that Ling and Sutherland are well aware of.
    “The repealing is great for singles, for couples, or gay couples. But beyond that, If you're going to have a family or you want marriage and or you want to be in Singapore and to be treated equally, that's still not going to happen,” said 44-year-old Ling, a marketing professional.
    Ling and Sutherland, an Australian and IT professional, met in Melbourne in 2014 and got married in 2018, after Australia legalised same-sex marriage. The couple got Tyler via surrogacy in Canada a year later.
    They moved to Singapore for work in early 2020 and have met their fair share of puzzled and curious locals.
    “We would be two guys pushing a stroller down Orchard Road, for example. And I would, you would get what I would term the Singapore ‘crane-neck’, because that the aunties and uncles would look at you as you get going along then they'd look in (the stroller) and look back, and they would, you could see, they were trying to work it out,” said Sutherland.
    Many LGBT couples in Singapore have also expressed concerns about Singapore’s national policies that leave them out of the loop for some social benefits that come with marriage, such as tapping on public housing grants or making medical decisions for each other.
    “We knew that by coming to Singapore, we knew that our marriage certificate will be like toilet paper, it means nothing," said Ling.
    Under Singapore's Section 377A, offenders can be jailed for up to two years under the law, but it is not currently actively enforced. There have been no known convictions for sex between consenting adult males for decades and the law does not include sex between women or other genders.
    Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) groups have brought multiple legal challenges attempting to strike down the law, but none has succeeded previously.
    However with the announcement of the repeal, Sutherland said that he is hopeful of more positive changes as the society progresses.
    “If you can work forward and perhaps have some conversations and open things up and help with normalising or removing barriers of discrimination against, you know, LGBTQ people, they just want to be treated the same as everyone else,” he added.
    (Production: Travis Teo)
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