Hundreds of same-gender couples tied the knot across Thailand on Thursday, as the country became the first in Southeast Asia to recognise marriage equality and legalise same-sex unions.
The landmark bill was passed in parliament last year, a revision to marriage laws, but only came into effect on Thursday.
It is a momentous win for the Thai LGBTQ community and sparked a rush of marriage registrations. The community had fought hard for the same rights as heterosexual people and couples, growing and flourishing despite no protection under the law.
Now, any couple aged 18 or above can register their partnership as a legal marriage, regardless of gender. The terms husband and wife have been replaced by the gender-neutral “spouse”, enabling access for these couples to medical rights, types of inheritance and property ownership.
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Mass weddings took place across the nation, including at Bangkok’s Siam Paragon shopping centre. Celebrities and policymakers who backed the law change and well-wishers joined the happy couples.
For older LGBTQ couples, it ends years of blocked attempts to change the law.
“I’m happy, excited and very honoured to be one of the first couples to be wedded under this law,” Thanaphon Chokkhoksung, 59, said of nuptials to Sumalee Subsaynet, 64.
“It means a lot to us. Because life [under the previous law] as a single person means we would have to care for ourselves, but now we can access equal medical and property rights together as a couple.”
At the mall event, decorated with pride flags and flowers, couples rejoiced in a simple – but tremendous – legal recognition of their love.
“We were so excited that we couldn’t sleep last night,” said Phisit Sirihirunchai, a 36-year-old police officer who met his now-spouse Chanathip, 42, on TikTok six years ago when he advertised a puppy for adoption. “The law used to see us as friends, but now it recognises us. We don’t have to worry so much about the future.”
The predominantly Buddhist kingdom is only the third place in Asia, after Taiwan and Nepal, to guarantee marriage equality.
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The move makes Thailand an outlier in Southeast Asia, where some countries still prosecute homosexuality, and the LGBTQ community often faces discrimination.
Thailand is also acutely aware of the “Pink Pound” potential of the LGBTQ community, with visa services immediately offering help for overseas couples seeking marriage and resorts and hotels advertising as wedding venues hoping to persuade gay couples from across the world to marry and celebrate in Thailand.
