A Singaporean In Australia

I used to think gays and lesbians are acquired traits but now I'm not so sure. It happened that I once knew a girl who was obviously attracted to the opposite sex. We lost contact during my NS days. By the next time I met her, she was a lesbian that went after girls like me. My balls almost dropped and rolled down the gratings to the drain below the bus stop. As how cancer cells or HIV virus change the victims' physical self or how dementia changes the way a person thinks or act, I regarded lesbianism as some kind of disease.

On the other hand, it was much later when my secondary school friends formed a Facebook group and told me they found one of our ex-classmates had 'turned gay'. In retrospect, he might have been gay right from the start. The more we thought about it, the more it made sense. He didn't have interests in girls despite being surrounding by belles all the time, talented in fashion design and stuff like that. Some of us might shudder at the thought of being so close to him like a brother (we were the last all-boy class in QSTS) only to find out much later he was our sister instead. Not me. When I had the opportunity to meet him up for the first time in 2 decades on my last visit to Singapore, I grabbed it. He never changed. Still witty, chatty and spoke with a glint in the eyes. Unlike the past, he never made any attempts to hide his sexual preference. That went to show the Singapore society have evolved to accept the LGBT community. But was that enough?

Recently there was a big deal about white dot, red dot and pink dot movements. Honestly I am not exactly sure what each group is specifically fighting for but it was clear to me that a certain group had crossed the lines of tolerance of another. As a human being and a straight guy, if a man can make himself consistently resist boobs, naturally or not, I say we leave him alone because that seems me to be a remarkable feat just as a Christian abstaining from the seven sins or a Muslim not breaking fast during Ramadan in their entire lives. Why would a man make the decision to take the rod and ditch the channel if he wasn't born that way?

If being  LGBT is a lifestyle choice, what makes a religion? Some may insist they are born into a religion but clearly for the rest, it was a choice. What gives religious people then, the right to ostracize other groups who do not fall into human criteria in their books? As for now, the section 377A of the Penal Code of Singapore states that, "Any male person who, in public or private, commits, or abets the commission of, or procures or attempts to procure the commission by any male person of, any act of gross indecency with another male person, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 2 years." I don't think it is a too much to ask for to repeal this obsolete law. The question lies in whether the LGBT community will fight for further rights such as rights to get married or eligibility to buy a HDB BTO if the government repeals section 377A. I think those claims are too far fetched at the moment and shouldn't be brought into the picture. Since sex is recognised as a basic human need, is it right to criminalised people for having consensual sex? Section 377A or not, the sex will go on.