Pop video featuring same-sex marriage banned in Singapore

Singapore has banned a music video because it features same-sex marriage.

Taiwanese Jolin Tsai's hit song We're All Different, Yet the Same has been banned from radio and TV because the video features Tsai and her compatriot, Ruby Lin, kissing as they exchange vows, both of them wearing white bridal gowns.

Same-sex unions are illegal in socially conservative Singapore.

We're All Different, Yet the Same is reportedly based on a true story about a lesbian couple who were together for more than 30 years. When one of the women was in hospital due to old age and required emergency surgery, her partner was unable to give consent because she was not her legal spouse or family member.

In a statement through her agent, Tsai said she had expressed her support for marriage equality through her music and while it was “a pity” the song featuring same-sex marriage had been banned in the city state, she would respect “different views”.

Singapore criminalises homosexual acts, a legacy of colonial-era legislation still found in many parts of Asia. There are regular challenges, but as recently as last October, the Supreme Court upheld the law, which carries two years in jail for men who commit acts of "gross indecency" with other men, in public or in private.

While there are often comparisons made between Singapore and Ireland as two similar sized, outward-looking economies, eager for foreign investment, the ban highlights the gulf in social attitudes between the two islands.

Regulator

The ban was ordered by Singapore’s broadcasting regulator, the

Media Development Authority

, as the song appears to breach several rules. Its code says: “Music associated with drugs, alternative lifestyles (eg homosexuality) or the worship of the occult or the devil should not be broadcast.”

Last year, Taiwanese singer A-Mei was told she could not sing her LGBT anthem Rainbow at her concert in Singapore as that would breach the city-state's rules. Tsai's home of Taiwan has been one of the more progressive places in Asia in building support for legalising of same-sex marriage.