With yesterday’s final overwhelming passage by the Thai Senate, marriage equality is soon to be the law of the land in already gay-friendly Thailand. The law needs be signed by the King Maha Vajiralongkorn, which all say is but a “formality”. Then, 120 days after the news is published in the Royal Gazette, it’s official: LGBTQI+ couples have equal rights in relation to marriage, child adoption, healthcare consent, and inheritance, among other things.
Some credit should go to Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, who has been vocal in his support for the LGBTQI+ community. He wore rainbow colors and marched with participants at the Pride Parade in Bangkok on June 1, regardless of the recent ominous warning the US State Department to be on the lookout for possible terrorists plans to disrupt global pride events this summer.
Thailand is the first country In Southeast Asia to legalize marriage quality, and the third in Asia coming after Taiwan in 2019 and Nepal in 2023. The passage of marriage equality comes after 10 years of work by activists and various politicians which has seen the issue get tossed back and forth. The delay in formalizing marriage equality and Thailand is possibly due to most things “gay” being traditionally accepted here for decades, creating less urgency in formalizing legal protections. It does seem that the decided minority in Thailand are families that do not have AT LEAST one LGBTQI+ member.
There will certainly be a lot of celebrating this year at the 3-day (!) Pattaya Pride Festival to be held June 21-23 (parade on June 22). Pattaya, only 1 ½ hours south of Bangkok was just named 12th best in the world by the Golden Beach Awards 2024
Report by Glenn John Once upon a loooong time ago, Glenn moved from NYC to Bangkok (pre-covid, the most visited city on Earth Forbes mag.et al) and suddenly he wants to let everyone know a bit more about Thailand (per capita, the queerest country on Earth – his stats) and maybe some of the LGBTQI+ happenings in the neighboring countries also.
