Grandson of Singapore’s founding father marries in South Africa

Li Huanwu, the grandson of Singapore’s founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, married his partner, Heng Yirui in South Africa on Friday (24 May).

‘Today I marry my soul mate. Looking forward to a lifetime of moments like this with [Huanwu],’ wrote Heng in an Instagram post from Cape Town.

Huanwu is also the nephew of serving Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who said he would not be looking to decriminalize gay sex in the city state.

 

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Today I marry my soul mate. Looking forward to a lifetime of moments like this with @hero.unit

A post shared by Yirui Heng (@hengyirui) on May 24, 2019 at 2:50am PDT

Debate over Section 377A of Singapore’s Penal Code, which punishes homosexual sex acts with up to two years in prison, has raged in Singapore since India dismantled similar colonial-era legislation.

‘My personal view is that if I don’t have a problem — this is an uneasy compromise — I’m prepared to live with it until social attitudes change,’ Lee told the BBC in 2017.

Heng on Friday also shared an Instagram story of a ‘My Big Gay Wedding Day’ card.

Coming out

Li Huanwu came out ahead of Singapore’s largest LGBTI pride event, Pink Dot, last year.

The 33-year-old came out in a stunning photo shoot for the Out in Singapore exhibition.

He features in the photoshoot with Heng, who is a 28-year-old veterinarian.

Lee Kuan Yew, who held office for three decades, often said publicly that homosexuality should not be criminalized.

‘This business of homosexuality. It raises tempers all over the world, and even in America. If in fact it is true, and I’ve asked doctors this, that you are genetically born a homosexual, because that is the nature of genetic random transmission of genes. You can’t help it. So why should we criminalise it?’ he said at an event in 2007.