Traditional beliefs play an important role in preventing same sex marriage to be legal in Singapore. The majority of the population, the Chinese, Indians and Malays have always supported the idea that same sex marriage is wrong and should not be legalized. Most Chinese have the idea that a complete family is made up of husband, a male and wife, a female, together with their children, and they treat children as blessings. However, for same sex couples, it is unlikely that they would have children of their own. As for the Malays, many of them feel that same sex marriage is a sin and that having sex with the same gender is worst than rape. This is further supported by the Islam law. As a large percentage of Singaporeans feel are against the idea of same sex marriage, the government would not want to enrage them by legalizing same sex marriage. Furthermore, there is no point legalizing same sex marriage because since most Singaporeans do not support same sex marriage, they would not marry another person of the same gender. Therefore, same sex marriage will be bad to the country as it might cause widespread unhappiness from its citizens, and the government would not legalize same sex marriage for fear that the citizens might be very unhappy.
Same sex marriage might cause a further decrease in the already very low birth rate in Singapore. According to The Straits Times, a newspaper company, the total fertility rate in Singapore has dropped to below 1.2 children per woman. The legalization of same sex marriage might further worsen this problem as it is impossible for two men or two women to produce children. Singapore is already facing the problem of lack of talent. With the legalization of same sex marriage, the population size will become even smaller, meaning that less talented people will be able to help create the new technology needed for high value added products to be made. This will also cause a drop in productivity of the Singapore, and this is unattractive to Multinational Corporations. Also, the small population could cause a lack of defence as the amount of able-bodied man in Singapore will decrease. Therefore, the government would not legalize same sex marriage as they would not want to risk the defence and economy of the country.
Same sex marriage might cause health problems. Prejudice, and discrimination caused by negative societal attitudes toward homosexuality lead to a higher chance of mental health disorders among same sex couples as compared to their heterosexual peers. By allowing same sex marriage, youths might think that being gay or lesbians is alright, but this might cause parental rejection, causing 8.4 times higher chance of attempting suicide, 5.9 times more likely to suffer from serious depression, and 3.4 times more likely to use illegal drugs. The possible negative effects of same sex marriage are very serious and the legalization of same sex marriage could cause serious health problems to many people in the long run. Therefore, the government would not want to cause all these health problems to their citizen by legalizing same sex marriage.
Since same sex marriage is harmful to the economy, defence and citizens of Singapore, the government would not legalize same sex marriage for fear that Singapore will face many new and serious problems once the legalization of same sex marriage has been done. Therefore, same sex marriage would not be legal in Singapore.
Reflection
After doing this expository essay, I feel that actually there are actually many factors the government needs to consider before implementing any plans, or legalizing any law. Firstly, the government needs to think from the people's point of view. In this case, the government needs to understand that as the majority of the population in Singapore is Asians, and as Asians are quite conservative, legalizing same-sex marriage may enrage a large population of the citizens. If the government did not take into account of the feelings of the people, they would lose votes and may not be able to continue being the government. Also, the government needs to take into account of the defense of the nation and the health of the citizens. If the government legalizes same sex-marriage, the nation's defense will be at risk and there will be an increase in health problems. This might result in speculation, and people might not feel that this government is worthy of the job as they allowed the nation's, peoples' health to be at risk, which might enrage the citizens, causing less people to vote for the government in the coming election. Thus, in order to protect itself, the government must consider the citizens possible feelings before acting. Although people might have the human rights to conduct same-sex marriage, sometimes the government cannot legalize it, as the citizens' responses might not be positive. In conclusion, I think that the government's actions are only based on the citizens' possible responses and that sometimes the government needs to consider many factors like the people's responses, causing some laws to be unable to be legalized as the people might be enraged and stop voting for the government if the law was implemented.
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