Thai PM joins LGBTQ+ couples ahead of first same-sex marriages
Thailand’s Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra poses for photos with same-sex couples and members of LGBTQ community to promote “Marriage Equality Day” at the Government House in Bangkok on January 15 2025 (Manan Vatsyayanamanan Vatsyanana/AFP via Getty Images)
LGBTQ+ couples and activists have gathered in Thailand’s capital, Bangkok, to celebrate ahead of the country’s first same-sex weddings on Thursday (23 January).
Last June, Thailand became the first country in Southeast Asia to legalise gay marriage.
Prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra invited dozens of couples and LGBTQ+ activists to Government House to celebrate, writing on Instagram: “January 23, 2025 will be the day we all make history together,” alongside a photo of guests in suits and wedding dresses. “The love of everyone is legally recognised with honour and dignity.
“From January 23, everyone, every couple, regardless of gender, can register their marriage at district offices throughout Thailand.”
The new legislation changed the wording of the law to describe a marriage union as between two individuals, rather than only a man and a woman. It also allows LGBTQ+ couples to adopt children, as well as giving them equal rights to healthcare consent and inheritance.
“Although Thailand has been known as the gay paradise or the queer paradise, it was never really the actual paradise for queer people,” 18-year-old activist Plaifah Kyoka Shodladd told The Guardian when the law was passed.
“But once we have this bill, it will open so many doors… I can feel the whole world cheering us on.”
Taiwan was the first country in Asia to legalise same-sex marriage, in 2019, with Nepal following suit four years later.
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