Senor Chang's "Ha, Gay!" | Know Your Meme

As the Uned Stat and Europe have progrsed to the issue of same-sex marriage, untri that are still workg through antecent issu, such as the crimalizatn of anti-sodomy laws, are regard by ternatnal gay rights advot as laggg behd the tim. This often leads to prsur om the Wtern-domated ternatnal muny for reform. Through this Article, Profsor Stewart Chang ntribut to the ongog scholarly bate between ternatnal human rights activists who sire to advance gay rights by utilizg the same rights-based mols that prevail the Uned Stat and Europe and crics of this approach who em the universal imposn of Wtern standards for gay rights upon non-Wtern untri as nstutg a new type of imperialism and subordatn. This Article analyz, for the first time, the qutn of neolonialism wh the global gay rights movement om a postlonial Asian perspective, focg on the recent legal dispute regardg Sgapore's anti-sodomy statute, Penal Co Sectn 377A, as a se study. Profsor Chang challeng the one-size-fs-all mol for gay rights advocy often prumed by Wtern human rights activists, particularly light of the lonial histori of many Eastern Hemisphere natns. For s postlonial ernance, Sgapore adopted a hybridized strategy that paradoxilly embraced Wtern palistic enomic growth while simultaneoly rejectg some major liberal valu associated wh palism. In particular, ncepts such as ernment nonterference and dividual privacy, which are re tes of Wtern gay rights disurse, have proved problematic Sgapore. Durg lonizatn, Sgapore purposely signed some of s laws to rever and reflect digeno Asian valu, which eventually veloped to a form of cultural natnalism that distguished om a perceived moral dulgency of the Wt. He explor how this postlonial tensn played a ccial role the choice by the Sgaporean Parliament to uphold 377A durg the reforms to the Penal Co 2007, but was largely ignored the subsequent nstutnal challenge agast 377A the urts. The nstutnal challenge was premised on a Wtern liberal mol of dividual negative rights, which he argu led to s failure as a neolonial venture bee threatened to disunt and subordate the will of the digeno Asian culture. Instead, Profsor Chang propos applyg tersectnal analysis om Cril Race Theory to fd a method for advancg gay rights postlonial Asian natns, such as Sgapore, that is sensive to not only the cultural nuanc, but also the postlonial sensibili of lol digeno populatns. The