History of Singapore gay venues

To effectively govern the Straits Settlements of which Singapore was a part, the British authorities conveniently imported the Indian Penal Code drafted in their largest colony in the 1860s and renamed it the Straits Settlements Penal Code in 1871. It came into effect in Singapore, Penang and Malacca on September 16, 1872. The new Penal Code included a Section 377 which criminalised "carnal intercourse against the order of nature". The latter was interpreted by the courts to mean any form of penetrative sex which did not have the potential of procreation. This included not only homosexual sex, but also oral and anal sex between heterosexual couples. In 1938, Section 377A was introduced by the legislature into the Straits Settlements Penal Code to criminalise all non-penetrative sexual acts between men, eg. mutual masturbation and frottage.

In Singapore's earl colonial history, Southern Chinese and Indians were imported as indentured labourers to oil the gears of the British entrepôt economy. Most arrived without wives or girlfriends (the male to female ratio of the Chinese before the 1920s being as high as 15:1), so they relieved their sexual tensions with prostitutes or other men. It is thought that the first places where homosexual men, especially Chinese coolies, could chance upon each other were the public toilets and back alleys near the bustling Singapore River, predominantly along the right bank (looking downstream) of Boat Quay (see main article:Public toilets in Singapore: gay aspects). The proximity of Hong Lim Park to Boat Quay may explain why the former became notorious as the first internationally known gay cruising rendezvous in Singapore to be listed in the Spartacus International Gay Guide, the most widely read gay tourist publication in the world (see Singapore gay venues: historical). 

=See also=
 * Singapore gay venues: historical

=References=

=Acknowledgements=

This article was written by Roy Tan.