'Conservative' Singapore Votes Against Legalizing Sex Between Homosexuals

Singapore's conservative parliament decided yesterday to keep a ban on sex between men, with the Prime Minister saying the country should keep its conservative values and not allow special rights for homosexuals.

"Singapore is basically a conservative society ... and we want to keep it so," Lee Hsien Loong said. The amended penal code also legalizes oral and anal sex between heterosexual adults.

Approval came after an impassioned debate in the chamber on whether to legalize sex between homosexuals, with one parliamentarian reading out a petition signed by thousands of people in favour of scrapping the British colonial-era ban.

Under Singapore laws, a man found to have committed an act of "gross indecency" with another man could be jailed for up to two years, although prosecutions are rare.

[Source - Reuters]