Back in the careless, Covid-free days of 2019, I shared a post on Facebook that included the following lines:

“I've kinda given up hope of repealing 377A anytime soon. Like, Saudi Arabia will have gay marriage before we get rid of 377A.”

As we all know, I’ve been proven delightfully, deliciously wrong. Last Sunday, on August 21st 2022, Singapore prime minister Lee Hsien Loong formally announced that the government would abolish the country’s colonial anti-gay sodomy law. But there was a caveat: he’d also be amending the Constitution to make sure activists couldn’t sue for marriage equality.

The news hit us like a rainbow thunderbolt. Predictably, a great weeping and gnashing of teeth ensued among religious conservatives. Less predictably, many queer folks and allies were in mourning, furious that the PM had decided to pander to homophobes at this very moment of liberalisation; shocked that he’d go so far as to amend the highest law of the land for their benefit.

“I remember before landing in SG this time, I was contemplating moving back here and being with my community. Not after today,” wrote Sharvesh Leatchmanan, co-founder of anti-racist group Minority Voices, on Twitter. “[T]his country has an amazing way of letting you down, again and again. There is no hope, I’m heartbroken.”