EGN NEWS DESK
Lawmakers in Thailand voted on Tuesday to approve a wedding equality invoice, a transfer that places the nation on a transparent path to changing into the primary in Southeast Asia to legalize same-sex marriage.
Thailand’s Senate handed the invoice by 130 votes to 4, with some abstentions, on Tuesday afternoon. It was permitted by the House of Representatives in March. The laws would grow to be legislation after it’s reviewed by a Senate committee and the Constitutional Court and receives royal assent from the king, a formality that’s extensively anticipated to be granted.
“After 20 years of attempting to legalize this matter,” activist Plaifa Kyoka Shodladd, 18, stated within the Senate chamber after the vote, “lastly, love wins.”
The invoice’s passage underscores Thailand’s standing as a relative haven for homosexual {couples} in Asia. Only Taiwan and Nepal have legalized same-sex marriage.
While India got here near doing so final 12 months, the Supreme Court deferred the choice to Parliament. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spoken strongly towards legalizing homosexual marriage.
In some Asian international locations, homosexual intercourse is a prison offense. Indonesia, the place homosexual marriage is illegitimate, made extramarital intercourse unlawful in 2022. In 2019, Brunei made homosexual intercourse punishable with demise by stoning. It later stated it might not perform executions after widespread worldwide protest.
Thailand’s invoice calls marriage a partnership between two folks age 18 and above, with out specifying their gender. It additionally provides L.G.B.T.Q. {couples} equal rights to undertake youngsters, declare tax allowances, inherit property and provides consent for medical therapy when their companions are incapacitated.
The invoice has been contentious since its first model was launched over 20 years in the past. While Thailand is likely one of the most open locations on the earth for homosexual {couples}, it’s socially conservative in different methods. In February, lawmakers dismissed a proposal to let folks change genders on official paperwork.
But a majority of the Thai public helps the wedding equality invoice. Last 12 months, 60 p.c of adults in Thailand stated they supported legalizing same-sex marriage in a survey by the Pew Research Center.
