GA

last thursday, i had a conversation with the parents of my housemate regarding homosexuality. although it wasn't so much of a conversation as a one-way dialogue with them hammering their disapproving views of such behaviours and me playing the part of the meek respectful and submissive Asian youth. the reason for this was because, during their (then) 5 days in Sydney, they became enlightened to the fact that our neighbours opposite us were citizens of the gay-er side of life.

the conversation swung from,

"Did you know that the people opposite you...."

and

"....saw 4 grown men cuddling on one sofa watching tv!"

to

"Recently, Singapore wanted to legalise homosexuality. But they FAILED!"

apparently, our neighbours down south have been attempting to become more 'open' (for want of a better word) and to adopt a more liberal view. what with the opening of a brand new casino, an establishment which was once considered a hotpot for vice and other damning attributes, it seems the Singaporean government tried to continue the ride on this 'liberal-minded' wave by pushing forward the motion to have homosexuality legalised. their reasoning was, that by doing so, Singapore would be seen as the first Asian/Southeast Asian (??) country to embrace the homosexual culture and adopt Western ideals.

my guess is that they wanted to do it because it was glamor and also very possibly the K-word. but cannot mention here...very sensitive issue.

anyway, according to her parents, this sparked a wave of protests from the Christian community in Singapore and all good faithful followers of Christ were called to mass-swarm internet forums protesting against the legalisation of homosexualism, sign internet petitions comdemning the legalisation of homosexualism, write letters to the Prime Minister expressing their anger against the legalisation of homosexualism* and just basically let their dissident voice be heard. and of course, being a democratic country; the people won, the government lost.

the conversation ended with this statement:

"Homosexuality is WRONG. If the government had legalised homosexuality, then this will mark the end of the country. Our values will crumble and be taken over by vice."

this got me thinking.

i am Catholic in faith. the Catholic church has a very strict view on homosexuality (henceforth known as Gay Activities, or GA for short...because i'm sick of typing out homosex..blabla) in that it is an abomination, an act against the law of Nature and should be condemned. this is because, in the Bible it is written as 'God made Adam and Eve' and not 'God made Adam and Evan'. and just because it is written in the Bible thus it is Law (in a Canonical sense).

however, i am also a firm believer in love (oh i'm so ashamed) and if two men or two women are in love and find comfort and happiness with each other, then i'm all for it. i honestly can't see the WRONG in it. such a weak argument, i know.

i can't see how legalising GA will lead to a crumbling of values in a society. i have gay friends in uni who are the nicest sweetest and funniest people i've ever met. most designers in the world of fashion are gay and they are successful and certainly do not promote a crumbling in societal values (although if you think of them as producing handbags with accompanying vomit-blood-inducing prices and promoting greed in women (and some men) then yea, i guess that's a crumbling society there). T.R. Knight is gay and he's about the sweetest and cutest gay doctor i've ever seen.

with such conflicting views i.e. Faith vs Belief, where do i stand?

anyway, i'm going off tangent. all i wanted to say was: Singapore tried to legalise GA when in fact they should be concentrating on legalising chewing gum**. HAHA!

*i made the last part of that sentence up. Prime Ministers do not bother with such trivial matters like reading letters penned by concerned citizens.
**is chewing gum still banned in Singapore? the last time i checked was back in 2001.