Gary Lim

Gary Lim is a graphic designer who founded The Bear Project together with his long-term partner, Kenneth Chee.

They were the second plaintiffs, after Tan Eng Hong, to challenge the constitutionality of Section 377A of the Singapore Penal Code which criminalises sex between men.

Chee and Lim designed the event posters for IndigNation, Singapore's annual LGBT pride month from 2012 onwards.

Section 377A constitutional challenge

In early 2013, Lim and Chee, who were hitherto a very private couple and who preferred to keep a low profile, were persuaded by lawyer Indu­lekshmi Rajeswari to join the challenge against the constitutionality of Section 377A, a case initiated by human rights lawyer M Ravi on behalf of his client Tan Eng Hong in 2010. Having been together for 15 years, they contended that the statute discriminated on the basis of sexual orientation, which makes it a violation of Article 12 of the Constitution stating that "all persons are equal before the law and entitled to the equal protection of the law"[1].

Represented by lawyers Peter Low, Choo Zheng Xi and Indu­lekshmi Rajeswari, Lim and Chee argued before Justice Quentin Loh during a closed-door hearing on Wednesday, 13 February 2013 that Section 377A was "absurd, arbitrary and unreasonable" for several reasons.

For example, it criminalised the "identity" of a person - premised on their argument that homosexuality is "innate and immutable" - and the fact that it is selectively and arbitrarily enforced. The Government had said, following previous calls for a repeal of the law, that Section 377A would be kept but not proactively enforced.

The Attorney-General's Chambers, however, submitted that the statute differentiated between men and women, and not specifically to gays. In other words, the law also applied to heterosexual or bisexual men. It added that Section 377A had the "clearly-stated purpose of reflecting public morality" - a point contested by Lim and Chee, who pointed out that it does not cover lesbians and heterosexuals who choose to commit other acts which are against public morality, such as adultery or pre-marital sex.

Indiegogo fundraising campaign

On 18 April 2013, Gary Lim and Kenneth Chee, plaintiffs in the Section 377A constitutional challenge who decided to appeal the recent High Court judgment solicited the help of friends and supporters in launching a fundraising appeal on Indiegogo to raise US$50,000 to help meet court costs:

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/fundraising-for-s377a-constitutional-challenge

The entire amount was raised within 18 hours of the launch of the campaign, earning it the disctinction of being the most popular Indiegogo community campaign worldwide.

The campaign video was jointly produced by Boo Junfeng and Loo Zihan.

Indiegogo campaign video[2]:

On 29 October 2014, Lim and Chee released the following statement after the Court of Appeal ruled against them and Tan Eng Hong[3],[4],[5]:

"We are deeply disappointed with the judgement of the Court and though it has ruled that it is beyond its judiciary function to help the lgbt community, we are thankful that the justices have taken the time to consider this appeal in detail. We hope that parliament will be able to do so as well.

While the legal road for us has ended, we believe and hope that this case has inspired Singaporeans - straight, gay, bisexual and transgender - not to keep silent in the face of prejudice and inequality.

We have been in a loving relationship for over 17 years and this past year has been an incredible milestone for us. We decided to embark on this journey because we felt that the LGBT community deserves to be recognized as equal to the rest of society in the eyes of the law and have been witness to the discrimination and unfair treatment of the LGBT community on the basis of S377A of the Penal Code.

Being a part of this historical campaign provided us the opportunity to show young LGBT people that there are gay and lesbi​an couples in Singapore who have weathered the discriminatory nature of our society and though we have to strive harder than heterosexual couples to be together, it can be done. We hope that we and the many other LGBT couples who are increasingly telling their stories will help others, and we hope that Singaporeans will see this as a minor setback for equality and fairness, and that we can as a country recognise the value of LGBT people.

We would like to thank the many people who have supported us on this fight. From the many who have donated funds to the legal case, to those who have contributed their knowledge and expertise. We also thank our lawyers Deborah Barker and Peter Low both of whom have been immensely supportive during the 2 phases of our legal challenge.

This particular journey may have ended for us but it continues for the rest of the community.

Thank you"

See also

• Archive of Court of Appeal judgment in Lim Meng Suang & Tan Eng Hong v AG, 28 October 2014
• Archive of High Court judgment in Lim Meng Suang & another v AG, 9 April 2013
• Section 377A of the Singapore Penal Code
• Tan Eng Hong

Acknowledgements

This article was written by Roy Tan.