Reach, the government feedback unit, gathers views on LGBT+ issues and Section 377A
There are also questions on whether participants feel that the LGBT+ community is accepted in Singapore.
Goh Yan Han
Political Correspondent
SINGAPORE - Government feedback unit Reach has launched a public survey on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT+) issues and Section 377A of the Penal Code, following Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam's comments earlier this month on the topic.
This is likely one of the first public polls by Reach on sentiments surrounding this topic.
Feedback from the Reach survey, which closed at noon on Wednesday (March 23), "will be shared with relevant agencies and could be used within the Government for policy updates and changes", said the survey in its preamble.
Reach also said: "We wish to hear your thoughts about the LGBT+ community in Singapore. This survey is open to everyone regardless of your sexual orientation and/or gender identity."
Mr Shanmugam had said earlier this month that the Government is carefully considering the best way forward on the law, which criminalises sex between men but which the Government has said will not be proactively enforced.
"We must respect the different viewpoints, consider them carefully, talk to the different groups," he told Parliament on March 3 during the debate on the budget of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
"If and when we decide to move, we will do so in a way that continues to balance these different viewpoints and avoids causing a sudden, destabilising change in social norms and public expectations," he added.
When asked if this was Reach's first public survey on attitudes towards the LGBT+ community and Section 377A, as well as why the survey was commissioned, a Reach spokesman said: "This survey is one of many that Reach pushes out frequently to Singaporeans to gather feedback on issues they are concerned with."
In the survey, under the section that collects demographic data of the participants, the question on gender provides three options - male, female and others.
There are also questions on whether participants feel that the LGBT+ community is accepted in Singapore, and if they are supportive of the LGBT+ community and its causes.
The survey also asks for participants' opinions on whether Section 377A should be repealed, maintained, modified, or if they are indifferent to it.
In a judgment released last month, the apex court here ruled that the law will stay on the books, but cannot be used to prosecute men for having gay sex.
After the survey closed, Reach said on the site that there had been "an overwhelming response that far exceeds the usual number of responses received in our e-Listening Points". An e-Listening Point is a virtual feedback platform.
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