Getty PhotographsThailand’s king has signed a wedding equality invoice into legislation, making the nation the primary in South East Asia to recognise same-sex unions.
The invoice cleared the Senate in June however required royal endorsement to change into legislation. It was printed within the Royal Gazette on Tuesday and can come into impact on 22 January subsequent yr.
Activists hailed the transfer as historic – it marks the fruits of years of campaigning for marriage equality.
Thailand has lengthy been seen as a relative haven for the LGBTQ+ neighborhood in a area the place such attitudes are uncommon.
The brand new legislation makes use of gender-neutral phrases rather than “husbands”, “wives”, “men” and “women”. And it grants same-sex {couples} adoption and inheritance rights.
“At this time we’re not solely getting to put in writing our names in marriage certificates, however we’re additionally writing a web page in historical past… that tells us that love by no means set a situation of who we had been born to be,” Ann Chumaporn, a longtime LGBTQ+ activist and co-founder of the Bangkok Pride movement, told the BBC.
“It’s a triumph of equality and human dignity.”
She said she plans to organise a mass wedding for more than 1,000 LGBTQ+ couples on 22 January.
“[The legal recognition] means we’re totally accepted and might reside our lives with out circumstances or compromises,” said advertising strategist Kwankaow Koosakulnirund.
“Thailand’s LGBTQ+ neighborhood can now look towards a future past relationships, embracing the sense of delight that this legislation brings,” he said.
“We’re all delighted and excited. We have been preventing for our rights for over 10 years, and now it is lastly occurring,” another activist, Siritata Ninlapruek, told AFP news agency.
Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra posted on X: “Congratulations on everybody’s love. #LoveWins.”
Former PM Srettha Thavisin, who has been vocal in his support for the bill, also applauded the development as a “important step” for Thailand.
“Fairness and equality have change into concrete within the Thai society. Gender variety will ultimately be totally accepted. Congratulations,” he wrote on X.
When the law comes into effect, Thailand will become only the third place in Asia, after Taiwan and Nepal, where same-sex couples can get married.
In 2019, Taiwan’s parliament became the first in Asia to legalise same-sex marriage. Nepal registered its first same-sex union in November last year, five months after its Supreme Court ruled in favour of it.
This was just one month after India’s top court had ruled against it, leaving the decision to the government, which said it would set up a panel to decide on more legal rights for same-sex couples.
Singapore scrapped a colonial-era law that banned gay sex in 2022, but also amended its constitution to prevent the courts from challenging the definition of marriage as one between a man and a woman.
Extra reporting by Thanyarat Doksone in Bangkok
