BY EDNA-UCLIQ
Thailand’s king has signed a marriage equality bill into law, a first for Southeast Asia.
The bill passed the Senate in June and needed only a royal endorsement to turn it into law. It is due to take effect on January 22 next year.
Activists termed it historic after years of campaigning for equal rights.
“Today we’re not only getting to write our names in marriage certificates,” said Ann Chumaporn, a co-founder of the Bangkok Pride movement. “We are also writing a page in history that shows love doesn’t discriminate.”
The law is gender-neutral, adopting certain terms such as “partners” instead of “husbands” or “wives.”
It grants same-sex couples equal adoption and inheritance rights. According to advertising strategist Kwankaow Koosakulnirund, LGBTQ+ couples no longer have to compromise, and they can live in a free world: “It’s not just about marriage; it’s about acceptance.”
Ann Chumaporn said she intends to organize a mass wedding for over 1,000 LGBTQ+ couples in January. “We are all excited,” activist Siritata Ninlapruek told AFP. “We have been fighting over the last decade. Now, it is finally happening.”
The news was celebrated on X by no less than Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, “Congratulations on everyone’s love. #LoveWins.”
Former PM Srettha Thavisin ,who had backed the bill , hailed this as a “big step” in the kingdom of Thailand. “Equity and equality have become real in Thai society,” he wrote on X.
It would become the third place in Asia to legalize same-sex unions, after Taiwan and Nepal. Taiwan was the first to greenlight same-sex marriage in 2019; Nepal did so last year after its Supreme Court ruled in favour.
Also in 2023, the Supreme Court in India refused to legalize same-sex marriage, saying it should be left to the discretion of the government.
Singapore this year struck off its colonial-era law that banned gay sex in 2022, but amended its constitution in that step, writing into the document the definition of marriage as between a man and a woman.
