In conjunction with the skill builder for Documenting Reports 1, write a description of the issue/problem/product that you would like to research. Be sure to follow that description with your topic’s general research question. Also, explain why an attitudinal survey would be needed in order to study this topic.
Currently, there are no statistics on what percentage of the Singaporean population gays constitute. The main reason for this is section 377A of the Penal Code (Singapore), which criminalizes "gross indecency" between people of the same gender. So constitutional rights for gay people are basically nonexistent, and penalties for crimes of homosexual acts are up to 2 years imprisonment.
However, during the Penal Code review in October 2007, the Singapore government declared that private, consensual, adult homosexual sex would no longer be punishable by law but its illegality would remain as a statement of the values of the "conservative majority".
General research question: Is Singapore going to legalize gay marriages in the near future?
Hypotheses: Singapore will/ will not legalize gay marriages in the near future.
The objective of this report: To allow the Singapore government to hear the opinions of the people and, from there, consider legislations that would better protect the rights of homosexuals in Singapore.
Significance of this topic (homosexuals in Singapore):
Firstly, the proportion of gays and lesbians in Singapore is likely to be similar to that in other countries, although there is little hard data. They form quite a substantial part of our population, thus, it is nearly impossible to turn a blind eye to the injustices they seem to face.
Secondly, in January 2006, the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) granted S$100,000 to Liberty League, an organisation affiliated with an ex-gay movement. This movement promotes gender and sexual health for the individual, family and society. The fact that the government invests heavily in this area shows the concern it has for this issue of homosexuality among Singaporeans.
An attitudinal survey would be needed to find out Singaporean’s level of acceptance towards legalizing gay marriages. If Singapore is generally still too conservative and unwilling to accept it, then it is unlikely that any changes to the legislation regarding the rights of homosexuals will be made in the near future.
Sample survey questions:
1. All adults in committed relationships should be allowed to marry or enter into civil unions, regardless of their sexual orientation, as proposed by liberal religious groups and some secular organizations. Agree/ disagree/ neutral.
2. You would accept if the government decides to pass a bill that prohibited same-sex marriages. Agree/ disagree/ neutral.
3. You would be likely to vote for a candidate who support gay rights, including gay marriage. Agree/ disagree/ neutral.
4. Gays should be allowed to adopt children. Agree/ disagree/ neutral.
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12 comments:
I apologise if I have strong views on this issue. (no offence)
Firstly, I believe the Singapore government would not even consider this issue at all. This topic has not been brought up for quite a period of time and I believe that the government tries to avoid tackling this issue (not mentioned in NDP rally).
Next, the gay community here I believe is rather small (minority) such that they do not gather much attention for their concern to be addressed.
Thirdly, it is not only the problem of conservative, but also on morality.
Moreover, the highlight is that the government advocates pro-creation especially of the ageing population. How would they even allow or legalise gay marriages? They are now encouraging people to fall in love, get married and have children. If they were to accept this proposal, wouldn't it contradict their original intention?
Lastly, if the homosexual community wants their voices to be heard, perhaps they can try having peaceful demonsrations at the Speaker's Corner.
Legalising gay marriages have always been a hot topic globally. Although much discussed, there is little change that is made except in some countries.
Your project identifies the lack of empirical data locally on the issue and seeks to collect information to effect a change in the legislation. I think that this a good starting point but I would like to highlight a few perceived problems in your survey design. Given the limitation of time and ability, who are your target population to survey and how can you ensure that different groups are covered and not left out? For instance, in a CBS poll conducted in the United States in May this year (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/06/13/opinion/polls/main4180335.shtml), different sample groups categorised according to age, gender, religious beliefs, political views are surveyed to ensure a fairer depiction of people's opinions. For the project, surveying people across Singapore on a large scale may not be practical but not doing so would affect how representative of Singapore population your results are. In addition, there may be some null returns as not everyone is comfortable about discussing the issue. These are perhaps a few points to consider in the data collection process.
While gathering opinions from the people on gay marriages can be used as a reference to decide whether the legislation is eventually passed, I believe that the political impact should not be overlooked. In sensitive issues such as homosexuality, influences from a political point of view is a crucial factor in the decision-making process. If Singapore government makes the precedent to allow same-sex marriage, would there be implications of granting the same degree of freedom to related issues such as polyamorous marriages too? Moreover, the government also need to consider the impact of making a stand in such controversial issue on the image they are portraying to Singaporeans and the world. Political decisions made during the term would affect future election results as well. Since the government itself is a major factor in answering your research question, perhaps you may like to include them in your research design instead of focusing on the people only.
Apologies for the multiple deleted comments.
The web link to the CBS poll does not appear correctly in the collapsed view of the comment page. To access the webpage, please view the expanded version of the blog post. Thanks.
Homosexuality has always been a controversial issue internationally, not to mention legalising such an act. Being part of the religious and conservative South-east Asia, I believe that Singapore will not legalise gay marriages.
However, I am personally open to homosexuality as I think that a modern society should embrace everyone's differences in character and behaviour. Not that I will encourage it but there must be a justifiable reason why certain people incline towards homosexuality. Although they are definitely the minority, we cannot assume that the local gay community is small. It may simply be because they dare not come out of the closet due to Singapore's conservative society and they do not want to be shunned upon confession.
I also feel that it will be difficult to obtain accurate information in your project as it will be challenging finding homosexuals to participate in your surveys. Having solely ordinary people participating in your survey will give you skewed results.
I would like to agree with you that the gays in Singapore receive very little support and attention from the majority of the population due to the conservative views of the society. As such, the gay community in Singapore are not entitled to constitutional rights, and such rights will probably not be given to them in the near future too.
To legalize gay marriages is equivalent to having premarital sex, which is frowned upon by the conservative society in Singapore. In addition, gay marriages might also bring about a list of complicated issues for the government to deal with.
Given the time and manpower for the survey, I feel that the survey conducted might have biased results as the sample size and distribution (spread) in terms of the surveyed population might not be large enough.
Hi,
I have read the above comments and I think I do not need to repeat their points here. I have another concern, which is whether NUS students will want to participate in the survey. That is because they may think that this is a sensitive topic which have endless debates, or because it does not concern them so much as they are the ordinary people.
Maybe homosexuals in NUS will respond to the survey but I guess that will be a small number and I am not sure if the results of the survey will be skewed.
My goodness- this topic does seem to have aroused a lot of interest and comment. I suppose you mean that the government should debate gay civil marriages. Gay religious marriages are a bit of a hot potato at the moment in the Protestant church at the moment. I don't know how other faiths would view such unions. This is something the government would have to consider before venturing into this territory.
Teacher-Fiona
Yes Kendra, I see what you mean. Thank you for pointing some potential problems out, if not I would probably run into many problems when doing the project. However, on a side note, I still feel that the government should not ignore the gay community just because they want to emphasize pro-creation and such. They may be a minority, but are humans afterall. The right to choose should be given to them as well, isn't it?
Yes Xinwei, I failed to consider the fact that the NUS gay community is probably very small, hence survey results are likely to be biased. Thanks for pointing that out!
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