No More 377A

[Мастер]

It hasn't been enforced for a while, but it seems the government will repeal the law outlawing gay sex.

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/ ... etween-men

Note that lesbian sex is already legal.

It does not seem this marks the beginning of a sea change - marriage will apparently remain strictly heterosexual.

What's next, legalisation of marijuana, like in Thailand?

[Lianachan]

Love the bum, but don’t chew gum.

[Мастер]

Love the bum, but don’t chew gum.

Chewing gum is legal, it's just illegal to import it or to sell it. You could manufacture your own . . . there are also now some exceptions for medical types of gum (apparently it can be a smoking cessation treatment, or used for certain dental problems).

I like this quote from the Wikipedia page on the ban on sales of chewing gum.

In the mid 1990s, Singapore's laws began to receive international press coverage. US media paid great attention to the case of Michael P. Fay, an American teenager sentenced in 1994 to caning in Singapore for vandalism (using spray paint, not chewing gum).

The parenthetical comment at the end is very helpful

[Richard A]

The fact that lesbian sex was already legal may be a legacy of the colonial era. Although gay sex was famously illegal in the UK up to the 1960s - as Oscar Wilde and others found out - lesbianism never was. The reason? Originally sex between any couple of the same gender was to be banned. But Queen Victoria apparently refused to believe that women got up to such things and so refused to sign the legislation until it was made male-specific! A lot of colonial-era laws stayed on the statute books after independence are are still there. Although the British didn't actually hang people for it, as I gather Malaysia does.

However, this reminds me of an amusing case my boss was involved with when I was in legal practice. This involved anal sex between a man and a woman - a French couple who were holidaying in England. (I think I may have told Arneb this story.) By then gay sex had been legalised in the UK, but sodomy of a woman remained a crime and consent was no more of a defence than it had been to gay sex some decades earlier. In France, in contrast, sex was sex - as my boss explained, provided that it didn't tick any of the boxes for rape, "you can put it in any hole or orifice you want". The incident had come to the attention of the police through it being reported by the woman, who did so following an argument. She knew - unlike her boyfriend - that what he considered to be a normal part of their relationship was illegal in the UK - and handed him over for what she thought would be a good beating but nothing worse. But he ended up before a Crown Court somewhere in rural England. His sole mitigation was that not only was there consent but it was legally permitted in France and he didn't know it was a crime here. At that point, the judge delivered the immortal line, "Right! I want an expert witness on French law! I refuse to believe that even the French can be that disgusting!" Enter, stage left, my boss - in the capacity of expert witness rather than barrister for once - who gave the explanation above. The judge went a particular shade of purple and gave him a conditional discharge.

[Arneb]

Yes, I think you told me that one. Maybe even more than once, but I'm hazy on detail. Come to think of it, as ardent fans of a good dram, we're mostly pretty hazy on detail if the converation happened after, say, midnight.

[Мастер]

Although the British didn't actually hang people for it, as I gather Malaysia does.

Well prison, and opposition politicians seem to be particularly susceptible here . . .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anwar_Ibr ... omy_trials

[Мастер]

What's next, legalisation of marijuana, like in Thailand?

Apparently what's next is further relaxation of the mask rules, which are really the only COVID restrictions still in place that I actually notice.

To be required only on public transit and in medical facilities, although I am not sure when this change is coming.

[Мастер]

But Queen Victoria apparently refused to believe that women got up to such things and so refused to sign the legislation until it was made male-specific!

Well, that could be what she said.

This law is too broad, it criminalises things no one is doing anyway, we have to change it!

Or perhaps she had some other reason.

[Richard A]

Come to think of it, as ardent fans of a good dram, we're mostly pretty hazy on detail if the converation happened after, say, midnight.

And the drams that you supply, Arneb, are excellent! Not to mention the fact that we at least remember having the drams! Hmm, I wonder why Boris didn't try that one over Partygate: "Well, I'd had several glasses of excellent wine, so I'm hazy on detail on whether any lockdown rules were broken. And on what I might have been told about old Pincher."