India inspires other countries to struck down section 377

NP NEWS 24 ONLINE: More than half of the countries that criminalize gay sex are former colonies that inherited those laws from the British culture. Interestingly, across the British Empire, the laws banning gay sex were often so similar that some even shared the same code number. In India, it was Section 377 which is similar to Singapore.

On September, Indian Supreme Court struck down Section 377 thereby holding up that sex between consulting adult of the same gender is not a crime, 2,500 miles away in Singapore- Johnson Ong felt it as a call for action.

43-year-old Ong is a DJ who lives with his partner, filed a constitutional challenge to overturn Singapore’s version of the ban, arguing that it was “absurd and arbitrary” and “in violation of human dignity.”

Ong also questioned that India being far more conservative than Singapore in some ways can do it, why can’t we?

Ong said, living as a gay man in Singapore will be like “standing over a trapdoor. You see the lever over there and the government is saying, ‘Don’t worry, we aren’t going to pull it, but you never know.”

Ong’s constitutional challenges more than 50,000 people, including a former attorney general and several former diplomats by signing a petition urging the government to reconsider Section 377A as part of a major penal code review, its first in more than a decade which sadly the government declined.

Singaporeans take pride in their multicultural society; the country’s strict media and sedition laws discourage talk of ethnic and religious differences.

Activists showed grievances explaining that if the media portrays gay in a positive light, things may change.

India’s decision is not only a victory for the global gay rights movement, but also a stark repudiation of the Victorian-era legacy that has long stifled them.

This year, British Prime Minister Theresa May even acknowledged Britain’s responsibility for that, saying such laws were “wrong then and they are wrong now.”

According to a report, Sri Lankan activists have sought advices from Indian lawyers who fought in the supreme court. Whereas in Kenya, political parties are seeking to overturn the country’s ban on gay sex by submitted arguments to the High Court based on the decision in India.