Singapore moves gayly forward

2004-01-07 10:51

Singapore - Singapore's increasingly tolerant approach to gay rights has gained momentum with Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong indicating a ban on gay activist groups may soon be lifted.

In a speech late on Tuesday to the Harvard Club, Lee said the emergence of gay rights organisations, along with other interest groups, would be tolerated as the government moved to ease curbs on political and social freedoms.

"There will be other groups formed, I'm quite sure, to campaign for specific issues, gay rights for example, and that is a sensitive one," Lee said after the speech, according to the Straits Times on Wednesday.

Homosexual acts are still outlawed in Singapore.

Goh said in July last year that although the government intended to relax its attitude to homosexuality, it would not be decriminalised because of opposition from the Muslim community and the majority of other Singaporeans.

"The heartlanders are still conservative. You can call it double-standard but sometimes it is double-standard. They are conservative," he said.

"And for the Muslims, it's religion, it's not the law. Islam openly says the religion is against gay practice."

- AFP