“I can’t find the words to express my happiness today” Narisara, 35, industrial designer, bursts out laughing on the phone as she goes to join her partner Anong, 38, photographer, in the center of Bangkok. “We are going to be among the first women to get married today in one of the multiple administrative centers that the town hall has specially opened for this occasion” she explains, a little euphorically.
Because the first law legalizing gay marriage in “Land of smiles” came into force this Thursday, January 23, 2025. A historic day for the LGBT+ community in Thailand who have been fighting for more than ten years to obtain this right to marriage.
For Prachaï, 45 years old, accountant in an import-export company, “it’s a real liberation for me and my companion Sombun.” As a couple for fifteen years, Prachaï and Sombun, 40 years old, had the feeling of not having a real social identity accepted by society.
“We lived in an almost exclusively gay environment,” admits Prachaï, “with the feeling of being a little excluded from real life”. Adding that even in the eyes of his family, his homosexuality took years to come to light. “more or less accepted”.
A conservative society
Even though Thailand has a reputation for being open and inclusive, where Gay Pride was organized every year, Thai society remains attached to very conservative, almost feudal values, subject to a revered and untouchable royalty. Many gay people still face discrimination in their daily lives.
“Especially for everything related to administrative and legal problems, explains Prachaï, because our couple had no legal recognition.” The couple today will join hundreds of others to officially tie the knot.
Activists from several NGOs have fought for more than a decade to have same-sex marriage recognized, but attempts at legalization had so far failed due to the chronic political instability that reigns in Thailand, between blows of State and major popular protest movements.
Thailand joins Nepal and Taiwan
The new law, adopted by Parliament in June 2024 and promulgated by King Maha Vajiralongkorn last September, no longer includes gendered references, and gives homosexual couples the same rights in terms of inheritance, property or adoption as ‘to heterosexual couples.
If Prachaï and Sombun feel “too old” to adopt a child, Narisara and Anong prepare for it. “Since last year we have already started to launch the procedures because we knew that the law would come into force in January 2025” explains Narisar. “We will finally be able to legally start a real family, she rejoices, it was essential for us.”
Thus, Thailand joins Nepal and Taiwan in Asia, which legalized same-sex marriage in 2023 and 2019 respectively. However, homosexuality is illegal in half of Asian countries, and can result in a prison sentence of several years. , as in Burma or Malaysia, bordering Thailand, noted in 2020 a report from the International Association of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex People (Ilga).