Same-Sex Couples Can Now Get Married in Thailand; 3rd Asian Country to Legalise Same-Sex Marriage

By
Kacey Tan
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For Thai individuals who never keep up with the news, they may have been extremely confused as to why they were suddenly receiving so many notifications of people around them getting married.

Probably not such a good way to start the day if that was me, considering how single I am.

Jokes aside, it was a celebratory day for many individuals yesterday, 23 January 2025, as Thailand’s equal marriage law came into effect.

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Image: Facebook (@Bangkok Post)

Under this bill, gender-neutral terms such as “spouse” will replace “husbands” and “wives”; same-sex marriages will be legalised, allowing for tax benefits, adoption and inheritance rights, and more, to be shared between such couples; and transgender individuals will be allowed to marry.

It is the 3rd Asian country, behind Nepal and Taiwan, to legalise same-sex marriage.

A mass celebration, organised by LGBTQ+ advocacy group Bangkok Pride, was held in Siam Paragon shopping centre, Bangkok, where hundreds of couples headed to register their marriage.

Image: Facebook (@Bangkok Post)

Within just one day, over 1000 couples from the LGBTQ community signed their marriage documents in the whole of Thailand.

A Highly Anticipated Change

No, these couples did not make an impulse decision to marry right after the law came into effect.

In fact, many of them have been waiting, advocating, and campaigning for years so that their relationship can be legalised just like any other heterosexual couple.

Many of their efforts were disrupted because of the political instability in Thailand and the stigma surrounding this community. The law was only successfully passed by the Thai parliament–overwhelmingly, with 400 votes against 10–last June.

Though the tolerance towards LGBTQ couples in Thailand have ranked relatively high on various indexes, Thailand is significantly helmed by the Buddhist religion and its conservative values, thus these individuals still struggle to find acceptance in some areas of their life.

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As such, the implementation of this law is a huge milestone for this community–evident by the emotional reactions of many as they registered their marriage. 

This was not just good news for Thai homosexual couples, but for foreign ones as well. Under the law, foreign same-sex couples can register their marriage in Thailand.

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Kacey Tan