Anti-gay Singapore prof cancels NYU stint after
uproar
SINGAPORE — A Singaporean law professor has pulled out of a
teaching stint at New York University after her hardline anti-gay
views triggered a backlash on campus, school officials said.
Richard Revesz, dean of New York University's law school, said
Thio Li-ann had informed him she would not be teaching during the
fall semester because of "controversy surrounding her views
regarding homosexuality and gay rights."
"She explained that she was disappointed by what she called the
atmosphere of hostility by some members of our community towards
her views and by the low enrolments in her classes," he said in a
statement seen Friday.
Thio -- a former appointed
member of parliament and a current professor at the National
University of Singapore, which has an exchange programme with NYU
-- could not immediately be reached for comment on
Friday.
The 41-year-old was due to
teach courses on human rights law and constitutionalism in Asia at
NYU during the fall semester starting in
September.
Singapore's Straits Times said NYU students were outraged after
learning that Thio had said in a parliamentary debate in 2007 that
repealing a colonial-era law making sex between men a criminal
offence "would subvert social morality, the common good and
undermine our liberties."
More than 800 members of the NYU community signed a petition
against Thio after gay rights activists circulated copies of her
speech, it said.
Revesz said he was not aware of the anti-gay speech when NYU
made the offer to Thio, and both courses have now been cancelled as
a result of her pullout.
In Singapore, sex between men is still a criminal offence
punishable by up to two years in prison under a law dating back to
British colonial rule, although it is rarely enforced.
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