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Authors Chua, J. Although the law was neither the first nor only attempt to regulate same-sex activity, it represented a stark intensification in sexual policing. Yet, the reasons for the introduction of Section A remain elusive.
New sources, including recently declassified documents, reveal that Section A intersected with the colonial state's wider project of social control. In the early s, intensified policing of female prostitution inadvertently magnified the visibility of male prostitution in Singapore, just as homosexuality was emerging as a distinct conceptual category. Meanwhile, scandals about sexual liaisons between European officials and Asians men threatened British legitimacy.
This "discovery" of homosexuality led the British to introduce Section A. As British troops arrived in Singapore in the late s in response to Japanese expansionism in the Far East, concerns about blackmail, military discipline, and the colonial color line governed the enforcement of Section A.
Between and , the British disproportionately used Section A to punish Asian male prostitutes whom they thought had seduced European men. Secondarily, the British used the provision to deter European soldiers, sailors, and non-officials from exposing themselves to extortion. Seen in this light, Section A served as a response to changing configurations of race, class, and sexuality in colonial Singapore.
