Thailand’s senate passed a bill Tuesday to legalize same-sex marriage, setting it on course to become the third place in Asia with marriage equality, alongside Taiwan and Nepal, and the first country in Southeast Asia.
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The bill, which was passed by the lower house of Thailand’s legislature in March, still needs the endorsement of the country’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn, and publication in a government periodical, before it is formally passed into law.
“Today, love trumps prejudice,” Plaifah Kyoka Shodladd, 18, told The Associated Press.
Thailand’s government said it would host a celebration of the passage of the bill, and supporters were expected to march through Bangkok.
The bill changes gender-specific terms in Thailand’s marriage laws to gender neutral ones, updating references to “husbands,” “wives,” “men,” and “women” to “spouse” and “person,” The Guardian newspaper reported. Under the new law, married couples, no matter their gender, will have the same rights in terms of inheritance, health care and adoption.
“Although Thailand has been known as the gay paradise or the queer paradise, it was never really the actual paradise for queer people. But once we have this bill it will open so many doors,” Shodladd said, according to The Guardian.
Previous attempts to legalize marriage equality over the past decade had stalled. In 2020, the Constitutional Court ruled that Thailand’s current law, which stipulates marriage being between a man and a woman, was constitutional.
Some of the major political parties contesting last year’s election pledged to push marriage equality as part of their campaign, including the progressive Move Forward Party, which won the most seats.
But that party, which had a huge youth following, was unable to form a government when former rivals joined forces to keep it out of office. Both the future of the party and of its popular former leader Pita Limjaroenrat remain uncertain as they face a slew of prosecutions.
Nonetheless Thailand’s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, of the Pheu Thai Party, had also promised to bring the marriage equality bill to parliament.
Dressed in a rainbow shirt, Srettha attended Pride Month celebrations in Bangkok earlier in June, joining a massive parade through the capital’s streets.
“It is a basic right to choose who to love,” he said in a post on X on June 1.
Srettha has been keen to showcase Thailand as a welcoming destination for LGBTQ+ people, including voicing support for a bid to host World Pride in 2030.
“We have come far in our journey towards social equality. I want to reaffirm my government’s commitment in pushing for the realization of the Equal Marriage Bill which today we can visibly see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Srettha said on X on June 1.
“We look forward to hosting of the World Pride in 2030 in Thailand.”
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