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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Rebecca Ratcliffe South-east Asia correspondent

‘I thought I would die before this moment’: one man’s fight against Singapore’s gay sex law

Tan Eng Hong was arrested in 2010 under Singapore’s law that banned gay sex and went on to be the first man to challenge the law in the courts
Tan Eng Hong was arrested in 2010 under Singapore’s law that banned sex between men. He went on to be the first man to challenge the law in the courts. Photograph: Edwin Koo/The Guardian

Tan Eng Hong’s voice wavers as he remembers his 12-year struggle against Section 377A, a law that criminalises sex between men in Singapore. When he heard the announcement this month that the law would finally be repealed, he felt relief. “I thought I would die before I could hear this,” he says. He thanks god, and the universe, that he is alive to witness such a landmark moment.

It was in 2010 that Tan Eng Hong experienced one of the most difficult episodes in his life. He was arrested by police for having oral sex with a consenting adult man in a locked toilet cubicle at a mall in downtown Singapore after staff at a nearby restaurant reportedly called police.

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