City-state allows sex between men

Bangkok Singapore likes to present itself as a model country that is ahead of its time: Parcel delivery by robot, chicken meat from the bioreactor and air taxis between the skyscrapers – technologically there is hardly a more advanced metropolis. But socio-politically, the Southeast Asian financial center is still stuck deep in the last century: Section 377A of the Penal Code – introduced by the British colonial rulers in the 1930s – prohibits sex between men. The penalty: up to two years in prison.

For decades, the governing PAP party, which has been in power without interruption since the founding of the state, refused to abolish the discriminatory regulation – citing deep-seated conservative views among the population. But now Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is daring to turn the tide: In a TV speech on Sunday, he announced the end of the ban on homosexuality.