Thailand’s lower house voted overwhelmingly in favour of a new marriage equality bill. Image source: Chainwit, via Wikimedia Commons.
Thailand’s House of Representatives has passed a bill to legalise marriage between people of any gender.
The lower house met the bill with overwhelming support — 400 members voted in favour, 10 against, two abstained, and three did not vote.
The bill introduces gender-neutral language to the Civil and Commercial Code — “men and women”, “husbands and wives” will become “individuals” and “marriage partners”.
Under the proposed law, LGBTQIA+ would have equal access to the legal protections of marriage, including financial and medical rights.
Same-sex couples would also be granted the right to adopt children.
Activists have noted that the lower house did not approve including “parent” alongside “father and mother”, which may limit the rights of some LGBTQIA+ couples to raise children.
The bill will require Senate approval and the royal endorsement of King Vajiralongkorn before it becomes law.
Thailand’s Senate rarely rejects legislation passed by the lower house.
Members of Thailand’s governing Pheu Thai party and opposition parties have voiced support for the change.
Pheu Thai spokesperson and chair of the marriage equality bill committee Danuphorn Punnakanta said the bill is “for all Thai people to reduce disparity in society and start creating equality”.
“We are not giving them rights — these are the fundamental rights that this group of people… has lost,” he said.
Though Thailand has a reputation for inclusivity, activists have struggled to advance LGBTQIA+ rights and protections in the past decades.
Despite the prominence of the transgender community in Thai society, the government has previously rejected proposals to allow people to change their gender identity.
Human Rights Watch have described the bill as “an opportunity for Thailand to match its positive global reputation on LGBT rights with tangible legal protections”.
Thailand would become the first country in South-East Asia to legalise same-sex marriage and the second in Asia after Taiwan.
Nepal also recognises same-sex marriages, but the Civil Code still describes marriage as between a man and a woman.
Same-sex sexual activity is criminalised in Thailand’s neighbours Malaysia and Myanmar.
