‘You take this business of homosexuality. It raises tempers all over the world and even in America! If in fact it is true – and I’ve asked doctors this – that you are genetically born a homosexual, because that’s the nature of the genetic random transmission of genes, you can’t help it. So why should we criminalise it? There’s such a strong inhibition in all societies – Christianity, Islam, Hindu, Chinese societies, and we are now confronted with a persisting aberration. But is it an aberration? It is a genetic variation. So what do we do? I think we pragmatically adjust… don’t upset them [the people] and suddenly upset their sense of propriety and right and wrong. But at the same time, let’s not go around like this moral police… barging into people’s rooms. That’s not our business’.
These were the words of former Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew that made headlines around the world. While the words may sound rather conservative to some, they mark a drastic shift in the public comments of Singapore’s leaders.
Tiny Singapore has always been identified – and not just in the world of gay rights – for its strict laws, which lay out a range of punishments for a lengthy list of infractions, from fines for gum chewing to canings for graffiti. Ironically, amid laws which prohibit gay sex as ‘an act of gross indecency’, Singapore has developed a reputation for having a thriving gays and lesbians community. This is partly because the laws are rarely enforced. They have also been rarely questioned, especially by public figures such as high-profile politicians. Most politicians seem content to maintain the status quo, keeping the laws on the books as a reflection of a conservative culture. It was out of this silence that Lee’s remarks rang out, a motivating call to gay rights lobbyists in the region.
While Lee still acknowledged the prevalence of conservative views in Singaporean society, he also distinguished between the public and private by stating that the government would not storm into people’s rooms to police private actions. This may have stopped far short of calling Singapore’s law discriminatory or asking for their removal, but Lee, who led Singapore for 41 years, leaving office in 1990, did demonstrated a line of progressive thinking rare in the history of gay rights in the city-state.
To see the YouTube clip of Lee Kuan Yew’s comments, click here.
NOTE: OUTinPerth apologises to readers for the incorrect use of Lee Kuan Yew’s name in the print version of this story. Chinese names put the last name first, so the story should have refered to the minister as Lee, not Yew.
