On September 25, 2024, King Maha Vajiralongkorn of Thailand officially signed the same-sex marriage bill into law. The bill had already passed through the House of Representatives and the Senate, requiring the king’s endorsement to become law. The law will officially take effect on January 22, 2025 allowing same-sex couples to register their marriages starting on that date.
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Thailand’s LGBTQ+ rights movement has been active for over a decade, but political instability including numerous coups and street protests slowed down progress.
Activists have faced several challenges in getting the bill approved including societal conservatism and political turbulence. The bill passed through the House of Representatives in April 2024 and later cleared the Senate in June 2024.
With the king’s endorsement, the bill was published in the Royal Gazette, officially making it law.
The new law amends Thailand’s Civil and Commercial Code by replacing traditional terms like husband and wife with gender-neutral words such as individual. This change allows for more inclusive recognition of marriages, regardless of the gender of the partners involved.
The law ensures that same-sex couples will have access to the same legal, financial and medical rights as heterosexual couples. This includes inheritance rights, adoption rights and hospital visitation rights, among others.
Same-sex couples in Thailand will now be able to legally adopt children. This aspect of the law has been celebrated as it grants equal parenting rights for all couples, regardless of gender.
The new legislation also ensures that LGBTQ+ spouses will have the same inheritance rights as their heterosexual counterparts.
One of the aspects of the new law is the amendment of Thailand’s Civil and Commercial Code. The law replaces gender-specific terms such as men and women with gender-neutral terms like individual.
The law provides same-sex couples with the same legal rights as heterosexual couples. This includes rights related to inheritance, tax benefits, medical decision-making and access to social welfare programs.
LGBTQ+ couples will now have the same legal protections and responsibilities as their heterosexual counterparts.
The law will come into effect in January 2025, 120 days after the official publication in the Royal Gazette. This allows time for government officials and agencies to prepare for the changes including training staff to handle same-sex marriage registrations and ensuring that legal documents are updated to reflect the new gender-neutral terminology.
The Pheu Thai Party has long been a supporter of LGBTQ+ rights played a crucial role in pushing the marriage equality bill through parliament.
The party made marriage equality one of its top priorities aligning its policies with the growing global movement for LGBTQ+ rights.
Following the royal endorsement of the law, Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra expressed his joy and support for the LGBTQ+ community.
In a post on X, he congratulated the nation and used the hashtag #LoveWins.
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Bangkok has long been a hub of LGBTQ+ activism and the city’s officials are preparing to celebrate the law’s enactment.
The next Bangkok Pride event will be particularly special, as it coincides with the legal recognition of same-sex marriages. Bangkok’s deputy governor, Sanon Wangsrangboon has announced that city officials are ready to register same-sex marriages as soon as the law takes effect.
LGBTQ+ activist Ann Chumaporn, a co-founder of the Bangkok Pride movement expressed her joy, saying that “Today we’re not only getting to write our names in marriage certificates, but we are also writing a page in history… that tells us that love never set a condition of who we were born to be.”
In celebration of the law’s passing, a mass wedding for over 1,000 LGBTQ+ couples is being planned for the first day the law takes effect, January 22, 2025.
Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, a vocal supporter of LGBTQ+ rights congratulated the community, tweeting, “Congratulations on everyone’s love” and using the hashtag #LoveWins.
Thailand joins Taiwan and Nepal as the only three places in Asia where same-sex marriage is legally recognized. Taiwan was the first Asian country to legalize same-sex marriage in 2019.
Nepal followed in 2023, registering its first same-sex union after a Supreme Court ruling.
India’s Supreme Court ruled against same-sex marriage in 2023, deferring the matter to the government. While India decriminalized homosexuality in 2018, its government has not yet moved toward legalizing same-sex marriage.
Hong Kong’s top court stopped short of granting full marriage rights, showing that progress in Asia is still mixed when it comes to LGBTQ+ equality.
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