377A (again)

377A: Majority not always right | TODAYonline
From Martin Piper

In the report “Govt has no plans to repeal section 377A for now” (March 2), the Prime Minister said: “I believe if you have a referendum on the issue today, 377A would stand.”

But I expect that if there had been a referendum on creating the Women’s Charter back when it was discussed, or on the Stop at Two policy, the majority would have voted against those.

If there were a referendum on lowering taxes, I expect the majority to vote for it. The majority are not always right, especially when they do not understand the effects of racism, sexism or taxation.

Leaders should be more learned and realise the ramifications, so it is up to elected governments to do what is logically and morally correct, not what is popular.

Repealing 377A would lead to higher economic productivity and fewer health issues, logically and morally speaking.

It would demonstrate strong leadership and put the population’s needs before notions of what might be popular with other sections of society.


Voodoo economics ("Repealing 377A would lead to higher economic productivity") and imperious rhetoric ("logically... speaking") aside, there're no benefits to repealing 377A - only disadvantages.

Politically, from the PAP's point of view, liberals still won't vote for them (the liberal wishlist is too long), and conservatives will be pissed off.

Furthermore, Singapore already benefits from the gay dollar and de facto tolerance of homosexuality.

So repealing 377A would have only symbolic impact.

Indeed, hand wringing about 377A is a self-fulfilling prophecy - the more activists complain about it, the more they feel victimised by it (actual gay people's feelings about it are another story).

In any event, if we did one day repeal 377A, even this symbolic impact would not be felt, because the activists would then move on to their next shibboleth - gay marriage.

And then the very same arguments that are deployed against 377A today would be mustered to push for gay marriage.