Tawach Chaweewong gets goosebumps just thinking about his upcoming wedding to his partner of almost eight years, Thanakorn Srikornthai. It will not only be a joyful celebration on a personal level, but also a historic occasion.
Thailand’s LGBTQ+ community has fought for decades for the right to equal marriage and, finally, on Thursday 878 district offices across the country will open their doors to same-sex couples to register and get married. It will make Thailand the first country in south-east Asia to recognise equal marriage, and only the third in Asia, behind Taiwan and Nepal.
“Even just talking about it, my hair is on edge,” said Tawach, 32. The legal change will open the doors to a variety of rights relating to finances, adoption and medical care. For Tawach, it holds symbolic importance. It means acceptance, he says. “I think that this will help the younger generation to be more confident, to come out, to express themselves.”
Tawach, 32, and Thanakorn, 36, will be registering their marriage with about 20 other couples at an event in HuaHin, a seaside resort city south of Bangkok on Thursday. There are similar gatherings across the country. In the capital, 300 couples are expected to take part in a mass wedding in the morning, which will be followed by an address by the prime minister, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, as well as drag queen performances and exhibitions. Smaller events are taking place nationwide, from Chiang Mai and Khon Kaen in the north, to Phuket in the south.
Thailand has a vibrant and visible LGBTQ+ community, and a reputation for being one of Asia’s most welcoming countries, but it has been a long journey for activists who have campaigned for equal marriage.
A cultural shift
Ann Waaddao Chumaporn, who has spent more than a decade pushing for legal change and is organising Thursday’s event in Bangkok, says there have been various barriers to change. Media representations in the past have created stigma towards the community, while Thailand’s tumultuous politics have also slowed progress, she says. Thailand has experienced two military coups since 2006, which placed power in the hands of conservatives and at times restricted civil society activities.
But the political mood has changed over recent years. “A big milestone was the pro-democracy movement, when the new generation tried to push a new agenda,” said Waaddao, who cited a protest movement that first emerged in 2020, and which called for democratic reforms, as well as gender and LGBTQ+ equality.
Media portrayals have also shifted. Today, Thailand is famous for its boy’s love series – TV dramas that portray gay love stories, and which have amassed a huge following across Asia.
Ruchaya Nillakan, 45, is also among those who will be getting married on Thursday. She never thought this day would come. Aged 16, her family told her that if she wanted to have a girlfriend, she should leave home. Back then, parents worried that if their child was LGBTQ+ they would struggle to get a job or face bullying, she says. As a teenager, she went to live at her partner’s house, but her mother would call every day asking her to come home. She felt guilty, and eventually the relationship stopped.
“I always thought it’s wrong [to be lesbian], it’s bad. [I thought] OK, I’m going to become a normal woman married to a man,” she said. She did marry, but her three previous marriages ended in divorce. She met her partner Nuttimon Sanyamast, 46, in 2023 and they fell in love and decided to stop worrying about society’s expectations. “I’m going to be with the one whom I want to be,” she says. Nuttimon had also been married previously, and they were both at a similar stage in their lives, says Ruchaya, who runs a tax services company.
Ruchaya’s family is now supportive of their marriage. Her father, she said, could see how happily they get along.
Being able to marry will give couples equal access to various rights. Tawach and Thanakorn, who have been together almost eight years, point to the ability to make medical decisions on behalf of their partner in the event of an emergency, and to apply for joint loans together.
They also believe the law will help contribute to cultural change. Discrimination and bullying still exist in society, they say, especially online. Having equal legal rights can help change this. “I think I can be more open in society,” says Thanakorn, who is a barber. In the past, adds Tawach, there have been times when he has been reluctant to express himself. “Now I can be fully open,” says Tawach, who sells clothes online.
Mookdapa Yangyuenpradorn, from campaign group Fortify Rights, says the law is a first step but that more revisions are needed to offer better protection. This includes switching to gender-neutral language such as “parent” in the civil and commercial code. “In the eyes of the law biological parents are still recognised [in terms of] a man as a father and a woman as a mother,” she says. This can mean that in a same-sex couple, one parent has no legal connection to their child.
Thailand is still ahead of the rest of south-east Asia, however. Malaysia, Myanmar, and Brunei criminalise same-sex sexual activity, as does Aceh province in Indonesia.
For now, it is a time for celebrations. “We are proud to be LGBTQ+ Thai,” says Ruchaya. “I’m so proud, stunned. I didn’t realise that this day would come and I would get this opportunity to be with someone I want to be with”.
