The paper analysed data from the second part of an IPS survey on race, religion and language. On gambling, more than half (55.6 per cent) felt it was always wrong, compared with 53.8 per cent in 2013. More than six in 10 Singaporeans (63.4 per cent) said having sexual relations outside one’s marriage was always wrong, up slightly from 2013 (62.2 per cent). Notwithstanding the “thawing” attitudes towards homosexuality, Mr Lim and his co-authors, Dr Mathew Mathews and Ms Shanthini Selvarajan, said that there is continued strong opposition to infidelity and gambling. “We cannot say for certain when the scales will be tipped in favour of gay rights in Singapore, but if present trends continue, it may not be very long before that takes place,” said Mr Lim, a research associate at IPS, a Singapore-based think-tank. Mr Leonard Lim, one of the paper’s authors, told TODAY that, while the survey results point to a growing acceptance of gay sex as well as other matters surrounding gay rights, most Singaporeans remain opposed to these issues. Singaporeans are also more welcoming of gay marriage now, with 16.4 per cent saying in the latest study that it was not wrong at all, compared with just 8.4 per cent in 2013.Īnd 48.5 per cent said gay marriage was always wrong, down from 58.8 per cent five years before. This was more than double the figure in 2013 (5.6 per cent).Ĭonversely, 50.4 per cent of Singaporeans in the latest survey said gay sex was always wrong, down from 61.6 per cent in 2013. SINGAPORE - Singaporeans have become more liberal towards homosexuality over the last five years, with a paper by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) showing “distinct shifts” in attitudes - especially among the young - towards gay sex and gay marriage.įor instance, the paper revealed that 11.4 per cent of respondents to the latest survey, conducted in Singapore between August last year and January this year, felt sexual relations between two same-sex adults were not wrong at all.