One step forward, one back? Singapore’s compromise on LGBTQ equality.

For years, Azimin Saini struggled to sing Singapore’s national anthem with pride. 

As a gay man, Mr. Azimin says his home country has long regarded him as a criminal, but on Aug. 21, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced Singapore would scrap Section 377A of the penal code, a colonial-era law from the 1930s that criminalizes sex between men. The widely anticipated move effectively legalizes homosexuality in Singapore.

“I don’t think there was a single gay Singaporean man who didn’t weep. Section 377A was the guillotine over all our heads. It made us feel a little less human, a little less welcome in this nation,” says Mr. Azimin, a branding and content specialist.

Under Section 377A, offenders could be jailed for up to two years, although the law has not been actively enforced in years.

The move is lauded by the LGBTQ community globally and rights advocates in the Southeast Asian nation. However, the change comes with a catch. In a compromise with conservative and religious groups, Singapore will also be revising its constitution to protect the definition of marriage between a man and a woman, creating significant hurdles for marriage equality.

This will make it impossible for LGBTQ advocates to mount constitutional challenges in the courts, like those that led to the legalization of same-sex marriage in Taiwan, the first country in Asia to do so, and in the United States.

Writer and LGBTQ rights activist Ng Yi-Sheng says that for LGBTQ communities and allies, the challenge will be rethinking the path to equality. “The way [lawmakers] have constructed a big barrier to marriage makes a lot of people think we should be fighting for marriage, but there are all these other less flashy things we can fight for that can also materially improve lives,” he says.

He adds that Singapore’s two-pronged approach could have far-reaching consequences, noting that the city-state is often regarded as a model for developing nations and Section 377 remains in force in other former British colonies in Asia such as Malaysia, Brunei, Myanmar, and Bangladesh.

Searching for a compromise

Singapore’s pragmatic brand of secularism, which guarantees freedom of religion while also ensuring that religious views have a place in public life, is an increasingly tough balancing act for a country keen to position itself as an inclusive global business hub. In the same speech where Mr. Lee announced that repealing 377A “is the right thing to do” and “something that most Singaporeans will now accept,” he also vowed to “uphold and safeguard the institution of marriage” through constitutional amendment.

“This will help us to repeal Section 377A in a controlled and carefully considered way,” he added. 

The proposed amendment gives Parliament the power to determine the definition of marriage, which forms the basis of many policies in Singapore from media content and advertising standards to public housing, education, and adoption.

It’s less extreme than enshrining the heterosexual definition directly into the constitution, as requested by some religious groups. Yet, with the conservative People’s Action Party holding a supermajority in government, marriage equality is not likely to happen in the near future.

For some queer couples, the compromise is a stark reminder that they still face significant barriers to equality.

“What matters is that my partner and I can be recognized as a legal unit, because there are very real issues at stake here,” says Mr. Azimin. “Can we buy a house together as a couple rather than as two unrelated singles? When one of us passes away, what happens then?”

LGBTQ counseling nonprofit Oogachaga responded in a statement that “there is no need for families and marriage to be protected from the LGBTQ community, as many of us are already in them.”

But in a country known for its conservative values, Mr. Lee’s announcement still came as a welcome surprise to many Singaporeans.

“Actually, I think the government is brave about this,” says content editor Dorothy Tan. “I’m a moderate, so I don’t expect sweeping changes overnight. It makes sense that it is a series of compromises – as long as it is in the direction of tolerance.” 

“If the government is committed to going down this path,” the mother of two young children opines, “it should think of alternative legal partnerships to reduce discrimination against gay couples without antagonizing people who are so caught up in what ‘marriage’ is.”

Imagining the path to equality

Despite the marriage setback, for LGBTQ rights advocates, the repeal of 377A marks a long-overdue, pivotal moment after decades of advocacy. More than 20 LGBTQ groups issued a joint statement, calling it “the first step on a long road towards full equality.”

Moving forward, co-founder of LGBTQ youth group Young OUT Here Benjamin Xue believes it will be key to establish a common space for religious conservatives and the LGBTQ community to talk frankly about Singapore’s future. “Right now we’ve seen a lot of hurtful rhetoric coming from religious conservatives, invalidating our lived experiences, hurt, and trauma,” he says. “LGBTQ people are religious too, and are also a part of Singapore’s social fabric.”

Despite the government asserting that policies on media content will not change, the LGBTQ community still harbors the hope that the repeal will pave the way for better media representation.

“Accurate portrayals and representation on mainstream media will allow LGBTQ youth to imagine a brighter future for themselves,” says Mr. Xue, “and at the same time let the mainstream majority understand the LGBTQ community a little better, creating more opportunities for empathy.”

Mr. Ng, the writer and rights activist, agrees. “I think for a lot of people, there’s discomfort because of unfamiliarity,” he says. “It’s a similar discomfort when there’s a new form of music or technology. A lot of people still don’t have gay friends. Older generations are also more reluctant to openly express or support it. Time and exposure will change this.”

He also hopes the repeal will make more people in prominent and influential positions feel comfortable about coming out to show “straight people that there’s nothing shameful being queer.”