Bangkok, Jan 23 (EFE).- Couples celebrated on Thursday as same-sex marriage came into effect in Thailand, the first country in Southeast Asia and the third in Asia to approve marriage equality, a milestone that will be celebrated with hundreds of weddings.
It has taken 120 days since the law was published in the Royal Gazette on Sep. 24, after it was approved by parliament in June, for it to enter into force.
Registries will receive couples wishing to make their marriages official for 10 hours today, and the first to do so were women Ployanapat Jirasukorn, 33, and Kwanporn Kongphet, 32, who sealed their union in a ceremony for hundreds of couples held at the Siam Paragon shopping center in Bangkok.
Around 300 couples are expected to take part in the mass wedding in the Thai capital, a symbol of the step taken in the Asian country that will be followed by a speech by Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, while a host of events will be held in parallel around the country.
The festive atmosphere applauds the long-fought-for progress of the LGBT+ community in Thailand, stalled for years by two military coups since 2006 that restricted civil liberties, where same-sex couples now have the same rights as heterosexual couples, including those related to inheritance and adoption of children.
The country now paves the way for the entire Southeast Asian region, and most of Asia, in this regard.
Neighboring countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei, with a Muslim majority, still criminalize same-sex relationships.
Modern Singapore did not fully legalize gay sex until November 2022, approving in parallel a constitutional amendment to protect marriage as an exclusively heterosexual union.
In China, same-sex sexuality has been legal since 1997, although the community still faces numerous prejudices and challenges and are not able to marry or adopt.
Although India decriminalized the colonial law that criminalized homosexuality in 2018, like Singapore, marriage is only for opposite-sex couples.
Japan is the only member of the G7 that does not recognize gay marriage, although in recent years its courts and local authorities have taken a series of steps that pave the way for future legalization.
Thailand thus s the few places in Asia with marriage equality, following Nepal, which legalized it last year, and Taiwan, which pioneeringly approved it in 2019. EFE
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