Thailand’s House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed a bill legalizing same-sex marriage, bringing the bill much closer to becoming law.
The bill passed by a 400-10 majority, with a small variety of abstentions, and the bill now goes to the Senate. If it passes there, and if Thailand’s king approves it, the country will turn into the primary country in Southeast Asia to acknowledge same-sex marriage. In wider Asia, only Taiwan and Nepal have done so.
Thai law describes marriage as a civil partnership between two people, not between a man and a woman. It may also provide LGBTQ couples with equal rights to numerous tax savings, the power to inherit property and the power to consent to treatment for partners unable to work. The project also provides for the granting of adoption rights. Thai law currently only allows heterosexual couples to adopt, although single women can adopt children with special needs.
“The amendment to this law applies to all Thais. This is a starting point for equality,” Danuphorn Punnakanta, the lawmaker who chairs the lower house committee on marriage equality, told parliament. “We understand that this law is not a universal cure for every problem, but at least it is a first step towards equality in Thai society.”
The laws took greater than a decade to finish, with obstacles arising from political upheaval and disagreements over the approach to take and what to incorporate within the bill. In December, Parliament passed 4 proposed bills referring to same-sex marriage; one was proposed by Prime Minister Sretha Thavisin’s administration, and three additional versions by the Forward Movement Party, the Democratic Party and civil sector. These 4 elements were combined into one project, which was adopted on Wednesday.
“This is the biggest victory,” said Nada Chaiyajit, a law lecturer at Mae Fah Luang University in Chiang Rai, who has supported the law since its inception. “We worked hard with the committee. It’s not nearly LGBTIQ, it’s about everyone. Equality.”
Thailand is one of the most open places in the world to LGBTQ people, although parts of its Buddhism-dominated culture are socially conservative.
