Thailand has legalized same-sex marriage in a historic move

As Thailand’s marriage equality law comes into effect on Thursday, police officer Pisit “Kew” Sirihirunchai hopes to be the first to become the first to have long-term partner Chanatip “Jane” Sirihirunchai.

About 180 same-sex couples are registering their unions in one of Bangkok’s biggest shopping malls in an event city officials helped organize to mark the legal milestone.

“We have been ready for such a long time,” says Pisite. “We have been waiting for the laws to catch up and protect us.”

The two men have been together for seven years. Eager to formalize their relationship, they have already gone to a Buddhist monk to give him the good news of a surname they can share: Sirihirunchai. They have also asked the local authorities to issue a letter of intent, and both signed it, committing to marry.

But, they say, the recognition of their union under Thai law is what they really dreamed of. This means that LGBTQ+ couples now have the same rights as any other couple to marry and be married, manage their property, inherit and adopt children.

They can make decisions about medical treatment if their partner becomes ill and incapacitated, or extend financial benefits (such as Pisit’s government pension) to their spouse.

“We want to build a future together: build a house, create a small business together, maybe a cafe,” he added, listing everything the law allowed. “We want to build our future together and take care of each other.”

Prisit says he has the full support of his colleagues at the police station, and hopes to encourage others working in government services to be open about their sexuality: “They should feel proud because they see us coming out without any repercussions, without positive answers.”

As a younger couple, Prisit and Chanatip – both in their 30s – have faced fewer obstacles than those who came out much earlier.

But for their community, it has been a long journey. Despite Thailand’s famous tolerance for LGBTQ+ people, activists say it took a sustained campaign to get the law passed.

“We’ve been waiting for this day for 18 years, the day when everyone can recognize us clearly, when we don’t have to run away or hide,” says 59-year-old Rungtiwa Thangkanopast, who will marry her partner of 18 years. in may

She was in an arranged marriage by her family to a gay man who later died. She had a daughter through IVF, but after her husband’s death she began to spend time helping run one of Bangkok’s first lesbian pubs. Then he met Phanlavee, who is now 45 and only goes by his first name.

On Valentine’s Day 2013, the two women went to the Bang Rak district office in central Bangkok to officially marry, a popular place to register marriages because the name means “Town of Beloved” in Thai.

This was the time when LGBTQ+ couples began to challenge the official view of marriage as exclusively heterosexual by trying to obtain marriage certificates at district offices.

About 400 heterosexual couples were waiting with them that day. Rungtiwa and Phanlavee refused, and the Thai media mocked their efforts, using derogatory slang for lesbians.

However, activists managed to convince the government to consider changing the marriage laws. A civil partnership bill was introduced in parliament, offering same-sex couples official recognition, but not the same legal rights as heterosexual couples.

A military coup in 2014 that removed elected officials disrupted the movement. It would be another decade before full marriage equality was passed by parliament, in part due to the rise of young, progressive political parties that championed the cause.

Their message resonated with Thais, and attitudes changed. By then, same-sex marriage had been legalized in many Western countries and same-sex love had also become normalized in Thai culture.

Such was the change in favor of the law that it was approved last year with an overwhelming majority of 400 votes, with only 10 against. Even in the senate, which is known to be conservative, only four opposed the law.

And couples like Rungtiwa and Phanleeva now have the opportunity to confess their love for each other without risking public ridicule.

“With this law comes the legitimacy of our family,” says Rungtiwa, “We are no longer considered strange because our daughter is not being raised by heterosexual parents.”

The new law removes gender-specific terms such as man, woman, husband and wife from the 70 sections of the Thai Civil Code covering marriage and replaces them with neutral terms such as individual and spouse.

However, there are still dozens of laws in Thailand’s legal code that have not yet been gender-neutral, and there are still barriers to same-sex couples using surrogacy to start a family.

Parents are still defined as mother and father under Thai law. The law also does not yet allow the use of the gender of the people in official documents; they are still stuck with their birth gender. These areas say that entrepreneurs will still have to continue to push for change.

However, this is a historic moment for Thailand, which is an outlier in Asia in recognizing marriage equality. And it is especially significant for older couples, who have had to take turns in positions.

“I really hope people will let go of the old, stereotypical ideas that gay men can’t have real love,” says Chakkrit “Ink” Vadhanavira.

She and her partner Prinn, both 40, have been together for 24 years.

“We both have proven that we really love each other for more than 20 years,” says Chakkrit. “We are ready to take care of each other from the first day we were together. We are no different from heterosexual couples.”

While Chakkrit’s parents quickly agreed to their partnership, Prinn’s parents took seven years to do so.

The couple also wanted to share the production business they ran together and other assets as a couple, so Prinn’s parents were asked to officially adopt Chakkrit, giving her the same family name. Prinn says the new law has brought some welcome legal clarity.

“For example, right now when a same-sex couple buys something together, a large item, they can’t share ownership of it,” Prinn said. “And if one of us dies, what both have earned together cannot be passed on to the other. That’s why marriage equality is so important.”

Today, Prinn says, both sets of parents treat them like any other child of a married couple.

And like any other couple when they had relationship problems, their parents helped them.

“My dad also started reading gay magazines to understand me better. It was really nice to see that.”

Additional reporting by Thanyarat Doksone and Ryn Jirenuwat in Bangkok