Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T22:29:04.244Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Rights Mobilization and the Campaign to Decriminalize Homosexuality in Singapore

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2014

Lynette J. Chua
Lynette J. Chua*
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of Law, National University of Singapore
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper analyzes how activists used a parliamentary petition to overcome legal and political barriers and mobilize openly for gay rights for the first time in Singapore. Unlike societies where rights mobilization has political legitimacy, exercising and claiming rights in the de facto one-party state are non-conformist behaviours and face greater limitations. Gay rights activists in Singapore not only struggle with the state and their opponents over the right to equality; compared to their counterparts in liberal democracies, they also have to overcome stronger restrictions on political access and civil-political liberties that enable or protect rights mobilization. This paper therefore describes and analyzes a politics of rights under authoritarian conditions and the complicated consequences of legal resistance and rights mobilization. Although the petition campaign transformed collective grievances, expanded activists’ support base, and opened up new tactical possibilities, it also provoked intense, third-party opposition and foreclosed other avenues of mobilization.

Keywords

gay rightsrights mobilizationlegal mobilizationsocial movementssocial change
Type
Legal Profession and Social Change in East Asian Countries
Information
Asian Journal of Law and Society , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , May 2014 , pp. 205 - 228
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and KoGuan Law School, Shanghai Jiao Tong University 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

Lynette J. Chua is an interdisciplinary scholar with research interests in law and social change, and law and social movements. Funding was provided by the Social Science Research Council, National Science Foundation (Award No. SES-0962129), University of California, Berkeley, and National University of Singapore (Start-up Grant WBS No. R-241-000-101-133). I wish to thank Kristin Luker, Catherine Albiston, Calvin Morrill, Kim Voss, Michael McCann, Mark Massoud, Leila Kawar, Indulekshimi Rajeswari, the editors and anonymous reviewers, and the audience at the National University of Singapore-Singapore Management University-Hong Kong University Symposium 2013, where an earlier version of this paper was presented. Most of all, I am grateful to the study respondents. Please direct correspondence to Lynette J. Chua, Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore, 469G Bukit Timah Road, Eu Tong Sen Building, Singapore 259776; e-mail: [email protected].

References

References

Albiston, Catherine (2010) Institutional Inequality and the Mobilization of the Family and Medical Leave Act: Rights on Leave, New York: Cambridge University Press, 185–212.Google Scholar
Amirthalingam, Kumaralingam (2008) “Criminal Law and Private Spaces: The Regulation of Homosexual Acts in Singapore,” in S. Bronitt, B. McSherry, & A. Norrie, eds., Regulating Deviance: The Redirection of Criminalisation and the Futures of Criminal Law, Oxford: Hart Publishing.Google Scholar
Andersen, Ellen Ann (2005) Out of the Closets and Into the Courts: Legal Opportunity Structure and Gay Rights Litigation, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Andrews, Kenneth T. (2002) “Movement-Countermovement Dynamics and the Emergence of New Institutions: The Case of ‘White Flight’ Schools in Mississippi.” 80 Social Forces 911–936.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barclay, Scott, Marshall, Anna-Maria, & Bernstein, Mary, eds. (2009) Queer Mobilizations: LGBT Activists Confront the Law, New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Barkan, Steven (1977) “Political Trials and the Pro Se Defendant in the Adversary System.” 24 Social Problems 324–336.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barkan, Steven (1980) “Political Trials and Resource Mobilization: Towards an Understanding of Social Movement Litigation.” 58 Social Forces 944–961.Google Scholar
Barkan, Steven (1985) Protestors on Trial: Criminal Prosecutions in the Southern Civil Rights and Vietnam Antiwar Movements, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Barkan, Steven (2006) “Criminal Prosecution and the Legal Control of Protest.” 11 Mobilization 181–195.Google Scholar
Beckett, Katherine, & Hoffman, Bruce (2005) “Challenging Medicine: Law, Resistance, and the Cultural Politics of Childbirth.” 39 Law & Society Review 125–170.Google Scholar
Bernstein, Mary (2002) “Identities and Politics: Toward a Historical Understanding of the Lesbian and Gay Movement.” 26 Social Science History 531–581.Google Scholar
Bernstein, Mary (2003) “Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained? Conceptualizing Social Movement ‘Success’ in the Lesbian and Gay Movement.” 46 Sociological Perspectives 353–379.Google Scholar
Bob, Clifford (2005) The Marketing of Rebellion: Insurgents, Media, and International Activism, New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bob, Clifford, ed. (2009) The International Struggle for New Human Rights, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Boittin, Margaret L. (2013) “New Perspectives from the Oldest Profession: Abuse and the Legal Consciousness of Sex Workers in China.” 47 Law & Society Review 245–278.Google Scholar
Brown, Wendy (1996) States of Injury: Power and Freedom in Late Modernity, Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Bumiller, Kristin (1988) The Civil Rights Society: The Social Construction of Victims, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Cain, Patricia A. (1993) “Litigating for Lesbian and Gay Rights: A Legal History.” 79 Virginia Law Review 1551–1641.Google Scholar
Central Intelligence Agency (2010) The World Factbook, Washington, DC: Central Intelligence Agency.Google Scholar
Chauncey, George (1994) Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890–1940, New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Chen, Jianlin (2013) “Singapore’s Culture War over Section 377A: Through the Lens of Public Choice and Multilingual Research.” 38 Law & Social Inquiry 106–137.Google Scholar
Chua, Lynette J. (2003) “Saying No: Sections 377 and 377A of the Penal Code.” Singapore Journal of Legal Studies 209–261.Google Scholar
Chua, Lynette J. (2012) “Pragmatic Resistance, Law, and Social Movements in Authoritarian States: The Case of Gay Collective Action in Singapore.” 46 Law & Society Review 713–748.Google Scholar
Chua, Lynette J., & Hildebrandt, Timothy (forthcoming) “From Health Crisis to Rights Advocacy? HIV/AIDS and Gay Activism in China and Singapore.” Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations,, online DOI: 10.1007/s11266-013-9429-7.Google Scholar
Currier, Ashley (2009) “Deferral of Legal Tactics: A Global LGBT Social Movement Organization’s Perspective,” in Scott Barclay, Anna-Maria Marshall, & Mary Bernstein, eds. Queer Mobilizations: LGBT Activists Confront the Law, New York: New York University Press, 21–37.Google Scholar
Detenber, Benjamin H., & Cenite, Mark (2007) “Singaporeans’ Attitudes Toward Lesbians and Gay Men and their Tolerance of Media Portrayals of Homosexuality.” 19 International Journal of Public Opinion Research 367–379.Google Scholar
Dudas, Jeffrey R. (2008) The Cultivation of Resentment: Treaty Rights and the New Right, Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Dugan, Kimberly B. (2004) “Strategy and ‘Spin’: Opposing Movement Frames in an Anti-gay Voter Initiative.” 37 Sociological Focus 213–233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Earl, Jennifer (2003) “Tanks, Tear Gas, and Taxes: Toward a Theory of Movement Repression.” 21 Sociological Theory 44–68.Google Scholar
Earl, Jennifer (2005) “‘You Can Beat the Rap, But You Can’t Beat the Ride’: Bringing Arrests Back into Research on Repression.” 26 Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change 101–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Earl, Jennifer (2006) “Introduction: Repression and the Social Control of Protest.” 11 Mobilization 129–143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Engel, David, & Engel, Jaruwan (2010) Tort, Custom, and Karma: Globalization and Legal Consciousness in Thailand, Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Engel, David, & Munger, Frank (2003) Rights of Inclusion: Law and Identity in the Life Stories of Americans with Disabilities, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Ewick, Patricia, & Silbey, Susan S. (1998) The Common Place of Law: Stories from Everyday Life, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Fallon, Kathleen M. (2003) “Transforming Women’s Citizenship Rights within an Emerging Democratic State: The Case of Ghana.” 17 Gender and Society 525–543.Google Scholar
Feeley, Malcolm (1979) The Process Is the Punishment: Handling Cases in a Lower Criminal Court, New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Fernandez, Luis A. (2009) Policing Dissent: Social Control and the Anti-globalization Movement, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Galanter, Marc (1983) “The Radiating Effects of Courts,” in K. Boyum, & L. Mather, eds., Empirical Theories about Courts, New York: Longmans, 117–142.Google Scholar
Gallagher, Mary (2006) “Mobilizing the Law in China: ‘Informed Disenchantment’ and the Development of Legal Consciousness.” 40 Law & Society Review 783–816.Google Scholar
Gilliom, John (2001) Overseers of the Poor: Surveillance, Resistance, and the Limits of Privacy, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Ginsburg, Tom, & Moustafa, Tamir, eds. (2008) Rule by Law: The Politics of Courts in Authoritarian Regimes, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Glendon, Mary Ann (1991) Rights Talk: The Impoverishment of Political Discourse, New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Goh, Daniel P.S. (2010) “State and Social Christianity in Post-colonial Singapore.” 25 Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia 54–89.Google Scholar
Goldberg-Hiller, Jonathan, & Milner, Neal (2003) “Rights as Excess: Understanding the Politics of Special Rights.” 28 Law & Social Inquiry 1075–1118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldman, Merle (2007) Political Rights in Post-Mao China, Ann Arbor: Association for Asian Studies.Google Scholar
Hagan, John (2000) “Narrowing the Gap by Widening the Conflict: Power Politics, Symbols of Sovereignty, and the American Vietnam War Resisters’ Migration to Canada.” 34 Law & Society Review 607–650.Google Scholar
Halliday, Terence, Karpik, Lucien, & M. Feeley, Malcolm, eds. (2007) Fighting for Political Freedom: Comparative Studies of the Legal Complex for Political Liberalism, Oxford: Hart Publishing.Google Scholar
Heritage Foundation, The (2011) Economic Freedom Index, Washington, DC: The Heritage Foundation.Google Scholar
Hewitt, Lyndi, & McCammon, Holly J. (2004) “Explaining Suffrage Mobilization: Balance, Neutralization, and Range in Collective Action Frames, 1892−1919.” 9 Mobilization 149–166.Google Scholar
Hoffman, Bruce (2008) “Minding the Gap: Legal Ideals and Strategic Action in State Legislative Hearings.” 33 Law & Social Inquiry 89–126.Google Scholar
Hor, Michael (2012) “Enforcement of 377A: Entering the Twilight Zone,” in A. Yue & J. Zubillaga-Pow, eds., Queer Singapore: Illiberal Citizenship and Mediated Culture, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.Google Scholar
Hull, Kathleen E. (2001) “The Political Limits of the Rights Frame: The Case of Same-sex Marriage in Hawaii.” 44 Sociological Perspectives 207–232.Google Scholar
Jasper, James M., & Poulsen, Jane (1993) “Fighting Back: Vulnerabilities, Blunders, and Countermobilization by the Targets in Three Animal Rights Campaigns.” 8 Sociological Forum 639–657.Google Scholar
Johnston, Hank (2006) “‘Let’s Get Small’: The Dynamics of (Small) Contention in Repressive States.” Mobilization 195–212.Google Scholar
Keck, Margaret E., & Sikkink, Kathryn (1998) Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Kirchheimer, Otto (1961) Political Justice: The Use of Legal Procedure for Political Ends, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Li, Lianjiang (2010) “Rights Consciousness and Rules Consciousness in Contemporary China.” 64 The China Journal 47–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lovell, George I. (2012) “The Myth of the Myth of Rights.” 59 Studies in Law, Politics, and Society 1–30.Google Scholar
Massoud, Mark Fathi (2011) “Do Victims of War Need International Law? Human Rights Education Programs in Authoritarian Sudan.” 45 Law & Society Review 1–31.Google Scholar
Mather, Lynn (1998) “Theorizing about Trial Courts: Lawyers, Policymaking, and Tobacco Litigation.” 23 Law & Social Inquiry 897–940.Google Scholar
McCann, Michael (1994) Rights at Work: Pay Equity Reform and the Politics of Legal Mobilization, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Merry, Sally E. (1995) “Resistance and the Cultural Power of Law.” 29 Law & Society Review 11–26.Google Scholar
Merry, Sally E. (2006) Human Rights and Gender Violence: Translating International Law into Local Justice, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Meyer, David S., & Boutcher, Steven A. (2007) “Signals and Spillover: Brown v. Board of Education and Other Social Movements.” 5 Perspectives on Politics 81–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyer, David S., & Staggenborg, Suzanne (1996) “Movements, Countermovements, and the Structure of Political Opportunity.” 101 American Journal of Sociology 1628–1660.Google Scholar
Miceli, Melinda S. (2005) “Morality Politics vs. Identity Politics: Framing Processes and Competition among Christian Right and Gay Social Movement Organizations.” 20 Sociological Forum 589–612.Google Scholar
Miyazawa, Setsuo (1987) “Taking Kawashima Seriously: A Review of Japanese Research on Japanese Legal Consciousness and Disputing Behavior.” 21 Law & Society Review 219–242.Google Scholar
Moustafa, Tamir (2007) The Struggle for Constitutional Power: Law, Politics, and Economic Reform in Egypt, New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Nielsen, Laura Beth (2004) License to Harass: Law, Hierarchy, and Offensive Public Speech, Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
O’Brien, Kevin J., & Li, Lianjiang (2006) Rightful Resistance in Rural China, New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Peerenboom, Randall P. (2004) “Varieties of Rule of Law: An Introduction and Provisional Conclusion,” in R.P. Peerenboom, ed., Asian Discourses of Rule of Law, London: Routledge, 1–53.Google Scholar
Polletta, Francesca (2000) “The Structural Context of Novel Rights Claims: Southern Civil Rights Organizing, 1961−1966.” 34 Law & Society Review 367–406.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rajah, Jothie (2012) Authoritarian Rule of Law: Legislation, Discourse and Legitimacy in Singapore, New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, Gerald (2008) The Hollow Hope: Can Courts Bring about Social Change? 2nd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Sanders, Douglas E. (2009) “377 and the Unnatural Afterlife of British Colonialism in Asia.” 4 Asian Journal of Comparative Law 1–49.Google Scholar
Schattschneider, Elmer E. (1975) The Semi-Sovereign People: A Realist’s View of Democracy in America, Hinsdale, IL: Dryden Press.Google Scholar
Scheingold, Stuart A. (2004) The Politics of Rights: Lawyers, Public Policy, and Political Change, 2nd ed., Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Silverstein, Gordon (2003) “Globalization and the Rule of Law: ‘A Machine that Runs of Itself?’.” 1 International Journal of Constitutional Law 427–445.Google Scholar
Silverstein, Gordon (2008) “Singapore: The Exception That Proves Rules Matter,” in T. Ginsburg & T. Moustafa, eds., Rule by Law: The Politics of Courts in Authoritarian Regimes, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 73–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silverstein, Helena (1996) Unleashing Rights: Law, Meaning, and the Animal Rights Movement, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Snow, David, & Benford, Robert (1992) “Master Frames and Cycles of Protest,” in A.D. Morris & C.M. Mueller, eds., Frontiers in Social Movement Theory, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Stern, Rachel E. (2013) Environmental Litigation in China: A Study in Political Ambivalence, New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tanase, Takao (1990) “The Management of Disputes: Automobile Accident Compensation in Japan.” 24 Law & Society Review 651–692.Google Scholar
Tate, C. Neal (1995) “Why the Expansion of Judicial Power?,” in C.N. Tate & T. Vallinder, eds., The Global Expansion of Judicial Power, New York: New York University Press, 27–42.Google Scholar
Thompson, E.P. (1975) Whigs and Hunters: The Origin of the Black Act, New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
Transparency International (2011) Corruption Perceptions Index, Berlin: Transparency International.Google Scholar
Vaid, Urvashi (1995) Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming of Gay and Lesbian Liberation, New York: Anchor Books.Google Scholar
Vanhala, Lisa (2012) “Legal Opportunity Structures and the Paradox of Legal Mobilization by the Environmental Movement in the UK.” 46 Law & Society Review 523–556.Google Scholar
Wong, Tessa (2007) “Homosexuality: Older Youth More Open and Better Informed.” Straits Times, 24 September.Google Scholar
Zemans, Frances (1982) “Framework for Analysis of Legal Mobilization: A Decision-Making Model.” American Bar Foundation Research Journal 989–1071.Google Scholar
Zemans, Frances (1983) “Legal Mobilization: The Neglected Role of the Law in the Political System.” 77 American Political Science Review 690–703.Google Scholar

Singapore cases and related materials

Chng Suan Tze v. Minister of Home Affairs, 1 Malayan Law Journal 69 (Singapore Court of Appeal 1989).Google Scholar
Lim Meng Suang & Kenneth Chee Mun-Leon v. Attorney-General, Singapore High Court 73 (Singapore High Court 2013).Google Scholar
Tan Eng Hong v. Attorney-General, Singapore Court of Appeal 45 (Singapore Court of Appeal 2012).Google Scholar
Tan Eng Hong v. Attorney-General, Singapore High Court 199 (Singapore High Court 2013).Google Scholar

Singapore statutes, regulations, and executive orders

Broadcasting Act, Cap. 28.Google Scholar
Constitution of the Republic of Singapore.Google Scholar
Free-to-air Television Programme Code, Media Development Authority of Singapore.Google Scholar
Newspaper and Printing Presses Act, Cap. 206.Google Scholar
Penal Code, Cap. 224.Google Scholar
Public Order Act 2009.Google Scholar
Societies Act, Cap. 311.Google Scholar
Standing Orders of the Parliament of Singapore 2010.Google Scholar