Thai lawmakers voted Tuesday in favor of a marriage equality bill, a measure that puts the country on track to become the first in Southeast Asia to legalize same-sex marriage.
The Thai Senate passed the bill by a vote of 130-4, with some abstentions, on Tuesday afternoon. It was approved by the House of Representatives in March. The legislation will become law after being reviewed by a Senate committee and the Constitutional Court and receiving royal assent from the kinga formality that is generally expected to be granted.
“After 20 years of trying to legalize this,” activist Plaifa Kyoka Shodladd, 18, said in the Senate chamber after the vote, “finally, love wins.”
The bill’s passage underlines Thailand’s status as a relative haven for same-sex couples in Asia. Only Taiwan And Nepal legalized same-sex marriage.
While India was on the verge of doing so last year, the Supreme Court postponed the decision in Parliament. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has come out strongly against the legalization of same-sex marriage.
In some Asian countries, homosexual sex is a criminal offense. Indonesia, where same-sex marriage is illegal, has illegal extramarital sex in 2022. In 2019, Brunei made gay sex punishable by death by stoning. He later said it would be not carry out executionsafter numerous international protests.
After the bill was passed, supporters celebrated the milestone with flags and colorful balloons as a pride rally with a drag show began in downtown Bangkok. Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said he would hold a celebration for activists on Tuesday evening, although he said he could not attend the event due to a Covid infection.
Supporters like Mookdapa Yangyuenpradorn, an activist with the Southeast Asia-based human rights group Fortify Rights, also called on authorities to act quickly to enforce the legislation once it takes effect 120 days later. its approval by the king.
Critics like Senator General Worapong Sanga-Nate said legalizing same-sex marriage would undermine the institution of the family and cause logistical problems at the Interior Ministry.
Thailand’s bill, which amends the country’s Civil and Commercial Code, characterizes marriage as a partnership between two people aged 18 and over, without specifying their gender. It also gives LGBTQ couples equal rights to adopt children, claim tax breaks, inherit property and consent to medical treatment when their partners are incapacitated.
The bill has been controversial since its first version was introduced more than 20 years ago. Although Thailand is one of the most open countries in the world for same-sex couples, it is socially conservative in other ways. In February, lawmakers rejected a proposal allow people to change their gender on official documents.
But a majority of the Thai population supports the marriage equality bill. Last year, 60 percent of Thai adults said they supported legalizing same-sex marriage in a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center.
Ryn Jirenuwat reports contributed.
