August 23, 2022: -Singapore is going to decriminalize sex amid men. Still, it has zero planning to change the lawful definition of a wedding as being between a man and a woman, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said.

Lee said in Singaporean society, young people in the city-state are becoming more which accepts of gay people.

“I believe this is the correct thing to do and a few things that most Singaporeans will accept,” he said in his annual national day rally speech, which adds that the government would revoke Section 377A of the penal code. This colonial-era law criminalizes sex between men.It was unclear when the law would be revoked.

Singapore has become the latest Asian country to move closer to ending discrimination against components of the LGBTQ community.

 In 2018, India’s most significant court scrapped a colonial-era ban on gay sex, while Thailand has just edged closer which legalizing same-gender unions.

In Singapore, as Section 377A, offenders can be locked for up to two years in the law, but it is not actively enforced. There have been unknown convictions for sex amid consenting adult males for decades, and the law does not include sex amid women or other genders.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer groups have brought many legal challenges attempting to strike down the law, but none have succeeded.

In February, Singapore’s most significant court ruled that since the law is not being enforced, it does not breach constitutional rights, as the plaintiffs had fought. It is reassured that the law could not be used to prosecute men for having gay sex.

Lee said that resistance remains to repeal the law, especially among certain religious groups, including Muslims, Catholics, and some Protestants.

Singapore is a multi-racial and religious area of 5.5 million, of whom 16% are Muslim, with huge Buddhist and Christian communities. It has a predominantly ethnic Chinese population with an average size of Malay and Indian minorities, according to the census of 2020.

Lee stressed his government’s continuing support for the traditional definition of marriage.

“We believe that marriage should be amid a man and a woman, that children should be growing within such families, that the traditional family should form the basic building block of community,” he added.

He added that Singapore will “protect the definition of marriage from being challenged constitutionally in the courts,” adding: “This will help us repeal Section 377A in a cool and carefully considered way.”