Thailand passed a law on same-sex marriage

The Thai parliament approved this Wednesday law on equal marriagethe most important legislative step for Thailand to become the third country in Asia to legalize unions between LGTBI people.

The new law was approved in the third and final reading with 399 votes in favor, 10 against and two abstentions in the lower house, which is dominated by the coalition government led by the Pheu Thai party.

Some of the representatives who spoke at today’s session wore flags and decorations with the colors of the LGBTI rainbow flag and They celebrated the approval with applause and hugs.

Among the fundamental changes it includes is the denomination of marriage from “man and woman” to “two people” and changing the legal status of “husband and wife” to a genderless “married couple”, while guaranteeing LGTBI unions the same rights currently enjoyed by heterosexual unions.

“I believe that this success is part of the consensus of Thai society. Work together to create a society of equality, not discrimination. Especially gender and family formation, which are basic human rights that the state must guarantee,” said Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin in social media.

The president, one of the Pheu Thai candidates to lead the state, has promised to promote LGTBI laws during the campaign ahead of the May 2023 elections, even though the laws have an unusual consensus among all parties in the country.

“Together we are moving towards a society of equality and respect for diversity,” said Srettha, who is trying to promote Bangkok’s bid to host the World LGTBI Pride capital in 2028.

For his part, the leader of the progressive formation Avanzar (Forward Movement), Limjaroenrat asks, One of the parties that has been promoting this change for years posted a rainbow emoticon on social network X as a sign of support for the legislature’s approval.

Following today’s approval of the bill, which began debate in parliament on December 21, it still has to go through several formal steps before it becomes law, such as getting final support from the Senate and being published in the official state newspaper after being signed by the King of Thailand .

Once it goes into effect, around the end of the year, Thailand will become the third Asian country to recognize equal marriage, after Taiwan and Nepal, and the first in Southeast Asia, a region where LGBTI rights have experienced significant setbacks. countries like Indonesia, Malaysia or Brunei.

Although the country has one of the largest and most visible LGTBI community in all of Asiaactivists believe that Thailand’s conservative laws do not reflect the changes and attitudes of society in recent decades.

Last year, the House of Commons already debated several similar bills, but failed to approve any proposals before dissolving the legislature before the election, in which the reformist Avanzar won a landslide victory, although he failed to form a government.

In 2019, Taiwan became the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage and since then more than 10,000 gay couples have married there.

Nepal, a leader of LGTBI rights in South Asia, recognized the first same-sex union in November 2023, giving legitimacy to the marriage of a man and a trans woman, while in February this year it registered its first marriage between two women.

Japan is another Asian nation that could continue to open up, as its courts and local governments have taken a number of steps in recent years to grant certain rights to these couples and pave the way for future legalization.