A retired doctor has filed a fresh legal challenge to force the Singaporean government to either fully enforce or introduce legislation to scrap a colonial-era law that can jail men for engaging in gay sex.
Tan Seng Kee, 62, a prominent LGBT+ advocate better known as Roy Tan, launched his legal bid in Singapore’s High Court this week to target a section of the country’s penal code – known as Section 377A – that criminalizes gay sex.
“It’s a recourse that every citizen has when adversely affected by the administration of the law by the government,” Tan said on Friday.
“Once the administration of law is inconsistent due to a policy or action of the government, we can have recourse at the High Court or Court of Appeal to force the government to undo their action or policy,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Section 377A can imprison men for engaging in gay sex for up to two years, although prosecutions are rare in the modern but socially conservative…