[plongeur]

Well, with regards to what "Westeners" nowadays consider civilized - Singapore is lagging behind SF I'd care to argue. Just consider gay rights and expressing affection in public - so in that respect there is rather an anti-correlation between cleanliness of public facilities and cultural development.

[ghshephard]

Public Displays of affection, beyond holding hands, doesn't have any rock solid claim on being "civilized" in my books - so, I'll call that more a question of currently fashionable behavior, much akin to public nudity (the recognizing of which probably has a better claim to being civilized in my books). As far as gay rights, agreed - Singapore is behind the curve on officially recognizing gay marriage. With that said, it's not as though Singapore is actually enforcing any of these laws - Singapore has a pretty active gay community/nightlife: http://blog.happymassage.com/the-gay-bars-guidance-in-singap...

[seszett]

> Public Displays of affection, beyond holding hands, doesn't have any rock solid claim on being "civilized" in my books - so, I'll call that more a question of currently fashionable behavior, much akin to public nudity (the recognizing of which probably has a better claim to being civilized in my books).

The civilized definition of being civilized is not to accept things depending on your personal opinion of what is civilized and what is not, but rather to not criminalize things that have no rational reason to be criminalized.

Public displays of affection, just like public nudity, gay marriage or chewing gum, are simply not reasonable things to make illegal.