Singapore to
allow Brokeback to be screened

BBC News reports that Singapore, which has strict laws against homosexual behavior, will allow the public screening of Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain. The country's media content director said the film was permissible because it does not "promote or glamorize the lifestyle" of homosexuality. Gay sex can be punished with a sentence of up to two years in prison in Singapore, but gay rights activists see the permission to screen the film as a sign that censorship is being relaxed. "This shows they are willing to give more scope for homosexuality to be examined as an issue in popular culture," Russell Heng, founder of gay support group People Like Us, told the BBC. While the 2004 film Formula 17 was banned outright and a lesbian kiss was cut from 2002's The Hours, Brokeback will be allowed to screen with a rating restricting it to audiences 21 years of age and older. (Advocate.com)