A same-sex marriage amendment has passed its first reading in the country’s House of Representatives.
Thailand’s plan to legalize same-sex marriage will take another step toward realization sometime later this year, with the country’s lawmakers set to approve a draft bill next week.
On Thursday of last week, Bloomberg reported, a committee set up by the House of Representatives approved a draft amendment to the country’s Civil and Commercial Code that will make Thailand the first in Southeast Asia to guarantee equal marital rights.
Once the bill clears the elected lower house, it will need final approval from the Senate. It will then require an endorsement from King Vajiralongkorn. Speaking to reporters, Akaranun Khankittinan, a deputy chairman of the panel, said that the process is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
At that point, Thailand will become the first country in Southeast Asia to legalize same-sex marriage, and the third in Asia after Taiwan and Nepal.
The country has been moving in this direction for some time. Back in December, the House of Representatives approved four proposed laws legalizing same-sex marriage, including one proposed by Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin’s government, which promised to legalize same-sex marriage in the run-up to last year’s general election. The remaining three drafts were submitted by the opposition Move Forward and Democrat parties, and a coalition of civil society groups. The House Committee was then formed to amalgamate them into a single bill, which will be the subject of next week’s deliberations.
At the time, the human rights organization Amnesty International praised the development, saying that Thailand “has the opportunity to set a bold example for LGBTI people’s rights in this region.”
As Bloomberg explains, the bill, like the various constituent proposals that fed into it, proposes a fundamental change to the composition of a marriage, from “a man and a woman” to “two individuals.” It will also change their official legal status from “husband and wife” to “married couple.”
