A first in Southeast Asia. Thailand has taken a crucial step towards legalizing same-sex marriage after MPs gave the green light by a large majority on Wednesday.
The text marks an important step forward, but must still pass before the Senate, before its final promulgation by King Maha Vajiralongkorn. The procedure could take several more weeks, or even months.
When the result of the vote was announced, applause rang out in the hemicycle, where certain elected officials brandished the rainbow flag, symbol of the LGBT+ community, according to images broadcast by the parliamentary channel.
“Today, society showed us that it pays attention to LGBT+ rights,” responded opposition MP Tunyawaj Kamolwongwat, a member of the progressive Move Forward party. “Now we will finally have the same rights as others,” he insisted.
The kingdom could become the first country in Southeast Asia to recognize unions between two people of the same sex, and the third in Asia after Taiwan and Nepal.
Decades of struggle
The LGBT+ community is very visible in the country known for its values of tolerance, but laws considered conservative continue to fuel discrimination against homosexual couples or transgender people.
After decades of struggle by activists, the marriage for all project has today attracted broad support from the main political movements, both from Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin and from Move Forward, which defends an in-depth overhaul of institutions.
The proposal adopted by MPs aims to change references to “men”, “women”, “husbands” and “wives” in the Marriage Act to replace them with gender-neutral terms. The new legislation must give homosexual couples adoption and inheritance rights.
“This is a huge step for our country,” said Mookdapa Yangyuenpradorn, a spokesperson for the human rights group Fortify Rights. “I hope that the last stage will go smoothly, and that Thailand will be at the same level as the rest of the world when it comes to LGBT+ rights,” she continued.
If Thailand is preparing to authorize same-sex unions, the law does not grant recognition to transgender or non-binary people who want to change their gender on their identity documents.