LOVE WINS: Hundreds of LGBTQ+ couples marry in Thailand as country becomes first in Southeast Asia to legalise same-sex unions

Hundreds of LGBTQ+ couples have married in Thailand as the country became the first in Southeast Asia to legalise same-sex unions.

A revision to marriage laws came into effect on Thursday, January 23, which sparked a rush for the first marriage registrations from an LGBTQ+ community which has flourished in many parts of Thailand – but has done so without protection under the law.

Now the terms “husband” and “wife” have been replaced by “spouse”, a gender-neutral term which triggers access to medical rights, types of inheritance rights and property ownership.

Mass weddings took place at Bangkok’s Paragon mall and government offices across the country, with celebrities, politicians who backed the law change and well-wishers joining the happy couples.

For older LGBTQ+ couples, it ends years of thwarted attempts to change the law, with a lack of political will as well as Thailand’s merry-go-round of governments over the last 20 years failing to lift same-sex rights onto the agenda.

“We were so excited that we couldn’t sleep last night,” said Phisit Sirihirunchai, a 36-year-old police officer who met his now-spouse Chanathip, 42, on TikTok six years ago. “The law used to see us as friends, but now it recognises us. We don’t have to worry so much about the future.”

The law was passed last year under Srettha Thavisin, who was prime minister for barely a year before being removed from office by the kingdom’s interventionist courts.