A judge in Singapore has upheld the
nation's sodomy law for a second time this year.
Singapore High Court Judge Quentin Loh
dismissed on Wednesday a challenge to the law which bans sex between
men.
The former British colony – and the
world's only island city-state – has only 5 million citizens but is
the world's fourth largest financial center. Singapore's sodomy law
has been in place since British rule.
The plaintiff in the case was Tan Eng
Hong, whose lawyer argued that his client's homosexuality was an
immutable trait like eye color, BuzzFeed.com
reported.
Loh used a university survey on divided
attitudes toward sexual minorities in Singapore to negate Hong's
assertion.
“The fact that there is plausible
evidence in support of either side must mean that this issue is at
least arguable and debatable,” Loh wrote in his decision.
In a similar case decided in April and
currently on appeal, Loh ruled that the “defining moral issues need
time to evolve and are best left to the legislature to resolve.”
Loh reiterated his call for lawmakers
to decide the issue in Wednesday's ruling.