SINGAPORE — Hundreds of same-sex couples tied the knot across Thailand on Thursday, as the country became the first in Southeast Asia to legally recognize equal marriage.
A luxury shopping mall in Bangkok hosted over 150 same-sex weddings alone, as members of the LGBTQ+ community celebrated the landmark ruling.
"I feel more secure in our life because we can be a family and be recognized as a couple in society," Anticha Sangchai told NPR.
Sangchai was finally able to legally certify her marriage with her wife Vorawan Ramwan, over two years after their original wedding ceremony.
"This is special for us because this is a day of history in Thailand," said Sangchai.
Thailand's parliament passed the historic same-sex marriage bill last June, joining Taiwan as the only countries in Asia to recognize marriage equality.
"Thailand is the perfect country to do it, because the society is really open to gay people," said Tom Tan, owner of GCircuit, the organizers of Asia's biggest gay dance festival.
"You can basically just be gay and you are fine in Thailand," Tan told NPR.
The new legislation means same-sex couples will now be afforded the same legal recognition as heterosexual couples, including full financial, medical and legal rights.
"This is more about building a life together and having the legal rights to protect what we build together," said Tan, a Singaporean national who plans to legalize his marriage with his Thai partner.
The same-sex marriage bill was written into law by Thailand's King Maha Vajiralongkorn last June following decades of campaigning from LGBTQ+ activists. The battle for marriage equality in Thailand has long been hindered by the country's turbulent domestic politics, including a military coup in 2014.
"It made it extremely difficult for parliament to move on with this bill, or to actually even have discussions related to gender justice," said Plaifah Kyoka Shodladd, an LGBTQ+ activist and member of the Thai parliament's marriage equality select committee.
Shodladd credits a wave of youth pro-democracy protests in 2020 for reigniting the movement to recognize same-sex marriage.
"That influenced political parties to campaign for LGBTQ+ related laws and policies, because it became a landmark policy to gain the popular vote from the younger generation," Shodladd said.
The new bill also grants same-sex couples the right to adopt, however, according to Tom Tan, there remain cultural prejudices that need to be overcome.
"The next step will be for society to fully accept gay parents can have kids and for kids to have gay parents and not to be mocked at school," Tan said.
Tan says there could be a long way to go before other countries in Southeast Asia take similar steps to recognize marriage equality. In his native Singapore, same-sex marriage remains illegal, although in 2022 the government repealed a law that criminalized sex between men.
"I do feel things are moving, but obviously not as fast as in Thailand," said Tan. "I still think it will take quite some time in Singapore."
But Tan and his partner Oui plan to formally recognize their marriage in Thailand later this year.
The pair are "super stoked and excited," says Tan, as Thailand embraces its status as a hub for the LGBTQ+ community in the region.
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