The Washington Post reports:
A gay couple filed a constitutional challenge in a Singapore court on Friday aimed at repealing a lo
ng-standing law that criminalizes gay sex.
Gay activists say the government has become more tolerant toward gays and lesbians in recent years, but that under Singapore law, gay sex is deemed “an act of gross indecency,” punishable by a maximum of two years in jail.
The couple, Gary Lim and Kenneth Chee, filed their challenge with Singapore’s High Court. Chee said they did so not because of any immediate fears, but because “I know that section 377A labels me a criminal.”
The idea of outlawing gay sex is about as rational as outlawing oxygen or water. Such laws are ridiculous, they don’t work, and they are an embarrassment to any nation that still has them on the books. By retaining such widely flouted laws, respect for all laws is eroded.
The gay couple who stepped forward to end such discrimination should be applauded. There is no place in the world that the LGBT community does not have inspiring activists on the ground creating change. This includes places like Uganda, which is currently involved with the “Kill the Gays” bill. What the homophobes in Kampala don’t realize is that they are setting the stage for a gay rights movement in that country. By forcing the issue, they are breaking the silence and obliterating the taboo. Once that occurs, it is only a matter of time before advances take place.
Anti-gay laws are not the greatest enemy of the LGBT community. That is silence. So, we must keep speaking out across the globe and challenging backward views and outdated notions of who we are. This is a global fight and it is one that we will surely win.
There is more to that “setting the stage” business. Rightist/authoritarian politics does seem to be drawn to opposing the civil rights of LGBT people. It is not so much a ‘moth to flame’ thing as a matter of selecting an issue whose outcomes initially seem to be irrelevant to most people as a way of getting and keeping political power. If ‘those people over there’ can be stigmatized in a way that will sway voters to buy into your larger program, that stigmatization itself becomes a marker of engagement on your side.
There three problems with that approach:
All that attention raises the question of how legitimate the stigmatization is in the first place. Jim Crow rather burned itself out this way.
You drive those who find the stigmatizing problematical into your opponents camp.
As the matter plays out, you get stuck with the leftovers and a problematical reputation for irrational abuse of voters.