SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore’s top court has heard challenges to its colonial-era gay sex law, a thorny issue in the socially-conservative city-state, for the first time since similar legislation was scrapped in India last year. The initial hearing of the cases was held on Wednesday and will continue over the next few weeks.

Three activists are arguing that Section 377A, a rarely-used law under which a man found to have committed an act of “gross indecency” with another man could be jailed for up to two years, is unconstitutional, according to their lawyers and local media reports. The law does not apply to lesbians.

Previous efforts to repeal the law in 2014 failed, but activists have been emboldened by the landmark ruling in India in September last year, by polls suggesting attitudes toward homosexuals are changing, and a perceived softening in tone from some establishment figures.

“Homosexual males are not lesser Singaporeans. They...deserve the same respect and legal protection under the Constitution. Section 377A...violates those fundamental constitutional protections,” Bryan Choong, one of the three, said in a written submission provided by a lawyer to Reuters. Wednesday’s hearings were not open to the public. The Attorney-General’s Chambers, acting as defendant, did not respond to a request for comment. Read more via Reuters