Thai legislature approves same-sex marriage law
Thai lawmakers on Tuesday voted to pass a marriage equality bill, a move that puts the country on a clear path to becoming the first country in Southeast Asia to legalize same-sex marriage. .
Thailand’s Senate passed the bill by 130 votes to four, with some abstentions, on Tuesday afternoon. That is passed by the House of Representatives March. The act will become law after being considered by a Senate committee and the Constitutional Court and receiving royal assent from Kinga form that many expected to be granted.
“Finally, love has won,” activist Plaifa Kyoka Shodladd, 18, said in the Senate after the vote after 20 years of trying to legalize the issue.
The bill’s passage underscores Thailand’s status as a relative haven for gay couples in Asia. Only one Taiwan And Nepal legalized same-sex marriage.
While India came close to doing that last year, the Supreme Court postpone the decision to Congress. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spoken out strongly against the legalization of same-sex marriage.
In some Asian countries, gay sex is a criminal offense. Indonesia, where same-sex marriage is illegal, is practiced Having sex outside of marriage is illegal in 2022. In 2019, Brunei stipulated that gay sex would be punishable by died from being stoned. Then it said it would do not carry out executions after widespread international opposition.
The Thai bill calls marriage a partnership between two people aged 18 or older without specifying their gender. It also gives LGBTQ couples equal rights to adopt children, claim tax benefits, inherit property and consent to medical treatment when their partner is incapacitated.
The bill has been controversial since its first version was introduced more than 20 years ago. Although Thailand is one of the most open places in the world for gay couples, it remains socially conservative in other ways. In February, lawmakers reject a proposal let people change their gender on official documents.
But the majority of the Thai public supports the marriage equality bill. Last year, 60% of adults in Thailand said they supported legalizing same-sex marriage in a survey by the organization. Pew Research Center.
