and then brought to Singapore on a long-term visit pass. When an application for Singapore citizenship for the boy was rejected, he approached the Ministry of Social and Family Development for advice and was told his prospects would be enhanced if the child was legally adopted. The man then applied as a single parent to adopt the child in December 2014 but the application was dismissed three years later by a district judge who said it was "ethically problematic" to go overseas to procure a child through surrogacy. 2019 Local singer dropped by record label for coming out Pop singer Willie Tay, known previously as Wiltay, relaunched his career as independent singer Wils in April 2019. Tay was discovered while on holiday in Madrid in 2012 and subsequently signed on with Warner Music Singapore for 3 years before winning Best Pop Album at the Hollywood F.A.M.E. Awards in 2014 for his debut album, WTF. He was dropped by his Asian record label for being gay and his social media accounts deleted. In 2019, he officially came out to his fans with his new single and music video, Open Up Babe. Legal protections for the LGBT community in amendments to the Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act In the 2019 amendments to the Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act, an Explanatory Statement to the new section 17E which deals with religious-based violence clarifies, "The target group need not be confined to persons who practise a certain religion. The target group may be made up of atheists, individuals from a specific racial community, who share a similar sexual orientation, or have a certain nationality or descent like foreign workers or new citizens." LGBT advocacy group Sayoni described the move as "the first time a law in Singapore explicitly extends protections to cover sexual orientation." Former Chief Justice on Section 377A of the Penal Code In a 72-page analysis published in the Singapore Academy of Law Journal titled "Equal Justice Under The Constitution And Section 377A Of The Penal Code, The Roads Not Taken", based on a talk he gave in February at the National University of Singapore law faculty's Centre for Asian Legal Studies, former Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong said Section 377A was enacted in 1938 to deal with male prostitution and not because such conduct was unacceptable in Singapore society then. As the original purpose of the section was no longer valid,