Khushi Maheshwari, Pune
After Taiwan and Nepal, Thailand has become the third country in Asia to give achieve marriage equality. From January onwards next year, same sex couples in Thailand will be able to get married legally. On Tuesday, King Maha Vajiralongkorn, the king of Thailand, gave his mandate to the marriage equality bill after it was passed in the Senate earlier this year in June.
Later, the bill found a place in the Royal Gazette publication and will be implemented in 120 days. Therefore, from 22nd January onwards, same sex couples in the country will have the right to get married. Although having gotten the senate mandate much earlier, the bill needed the royal green light to become a law.
Sanon Wangsrangboon, Deputy verified that same sex marriages would begin to be registered by city officials as soon as the law comes into effect. The new law also alters Thailand’s Civil and Commercial code by switching out gender conforming labels like “women and men” with more neutral terms like “individual”
In June, the government also associated itself with Bangkok’s pride parade and celebrated pride month in one of the most bustling districts in the city.
While people from the LGBTQIA+ community continue to face persecution in most of the Asian countries, Thailand has long served as a much required refuge for them. Queer rights’ activists have commended the decision, calling it a milestone in history. They see it as a fruitful culmination of all the efforts and campaigning that happened over the years to achieve equality in marriage.
One of the activists, Ann Chumaporn, expressed her joy and termed the move as a “triumph of equality and human dignity”. She further mentioned her plans of organizing a grand wedding for a little over 1000 queer couples on January 22nd.
Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the current Prime Minister of the country, celebrated the decision with a post on X which stated: “Congratulations on everyone’s love. #love wins”. Srettha Thavisin, former PM of the country and a long-time supporter of the marriage equality bill (now law) also endorsed the decision and praised it on social media platform X.
Same sex marriage among Asian countries was first legalized in Taiwan in 2019, then in Nepal last year. While the apex court in India abolished Section 377 of the IPC- a colonial era legislation which criminalized consensual sexual activities between people of the same sex- back in September 2018, the battle for marriage equality for queer folks still persists.