Hundreds of same-sex couples wed as Thailand’s landmark marriage bill takes effect.
Image: FMT
Hundreds of same-sex couples are tying the knot across Thailand on Thursday as the country becomes the first in Southeast Asia to recognize marriage equality.
The landmark bill marks a momentous win for the LGBTQ+ community, which has fought for more than a decade for the same marriage rights as heterosexual couples.
“It’s the happiest day of my life. We could finally and completely do what we have been wanting to do for a long time,” Pisit Sirihiranchai, who married his partner of five years Chanathip Sirihiranchai, told CNN.
“We are now a complete family,” he said.
Under the legislation, passed by Thailand’s parliament and endorsed by the king last year, same-sex couples are able to register their marriages with full legal, financial, and medical rights, as well as adoption and inheritance rights.
“This marriage equality law marks the beginning of Thai society’s greater awareness of gender diversity, and our embrace of everyone regardless of sexual orientation, race, or religion — our affirmation that everyone is entitled to equal rights and dignity,” Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said in a recorded message played at a mass wedding in the capital Bangkok on Thursday.
