Thailand's parliament legalises same-sex marriage
A huge step forward for the LGBTQ community.
While it was expected, it is a huge milestone that the upper chamber of Thailand's parliament has now approved the proposed marriage equality bill.
Having completed the legislative process, the bill will be sent to King Maha Vajiralongkorn for Royal Assent, which is a formality, and the new laws will come into effect 120 days after the required proceedings have been completed.
The new legislation changes references to “men”, “women”, “husbands” and “wives” to gender-neutral terms such as “spouse” and “person”. Couples will have equal access to marriage, as well as the same rights in areas including child adoption, healthcare consent, and inheritance.
Since taking office in September 2023, Prime Minister Sretta Thavisin has been vocal in his support for Marriage Equality. He has now delivered on the commitments he made to the LGBTQ community. Thailand already has laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis gender identity and sexual orientation.
Thailand has a population of over 70 million people. That means that around 2 million LGBTQ people have just benefited from these new marriage equality laws (assuming a guide of about 3% of people over the age of 16 identifying as queer).
This is a huge step forward for the LGBTQ community of Thailand, and also reinforce Thailand's reputation as a queer-friendly tourism destination.
