However, the results showed that a lot of people were uncertain over whether to keep the law.
A survey of 1,000 Singaporeans has found that most people in the country want to keep its anti-gay law, Section 377A, even if the law wasn’t enforced.
It is currently illegal to be gay in Singapore, and people who are convicted of having gay sex can face up to two years in prison.
The survey was commissioned by Blackbox Research, and they found that 42% of the people who responded said that they either strongly agreed or agreed with the statement: “Singapore should keep Section 377A even if it is not enforced. Do you agree?”
Only 19% of people responding said that they disagreed with the statement, with a further 40% remaining neutral on the question.
Yahoo reports that males and females were in equal minds when responding, with 41% of males favouring keeping the law, compared to 42% of women.
When it came to removing the law, 21% of males were in favour, with only 17% of women being in favour. 38% of males were neutral on the issue, with a further 41% of women being neutral.
Unsurprisingly, young people (15-24) were more in favour of overturning the law than the older generation were. However, more were still in favour of keeping the law with 28% wanting to keep it and 27% wanting to overturn it. 48% of older people (50 and over) wanted to keep the law, compared to only just 15% who wanted to overturn it.
Separate petitions were launched calling for the ban to be kept and overturned, and unfortunately the petition calling for the law to be kept managed to reach over 109,000 signatures. The petition calling for the law to be overturned has only reached 50,000 signatures.
Back in October 2014, the Singapore Supreme Court upheld the region’s ban on same-sex sexual activity, ruling that it does not violate the country’s constitution.
And in September, Singapore’s home affairs and law minister, Kasiviswanathan Shanmugam, has said that it is up to society to decide whether they to will remove Section 377A.
Responding to a question in the wake of India’s ruling, he said: “If you look at the issue, it is a deeply split society.
“The majority are opposed to any change to Section 377A. They are opposed to removing it. Can you impose viewpoints on a majority when [the issue is] so closely related to social value systems?
“I think society has got to decide which direction it wants to go. And the laws will have to keep pace with changes in society and how society sees these issues.”
Meanwhile, Singapore’s Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong, last year told BBC’s HARDtalk: “My personal view is that if I don’t have a problem — this is an uneasy compromise — I’m prepared to live with it until social attitudes change.”
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