Same-Sex Marriage is Officially Legal in Thailand, Foreign Couples Also Allowed to Register

Thailand’s same-sex marriage law, the Marriage Equality Act, was implemented and came into effect yesterday (January 23), leading to 1,832 same-sex couples registering their marriages on the historic day.

According to a report by The Nation, the Marriage Equality Act’s implementation also caused the amendment of seventy sections of Thailand’s Civil Code, to cancel out binary wording such as ‘man’, ‘woman’; ‘husbands’, ‘wives’ and more.

These words have been replaced by gender-neutral terms such as ‘persons’, ‘individuals’, ‘spouses’ and ‘engaged couples’.

The new law also raised the minimum age for marriage from 17 years old to 18 years old.

However, the biggest question on everyone’s minds is, can foreigners utilise the same-sex marriage law in Thailand?

The answer is yes. Foreign same-sex couples can register their marriage in Thailand. However, they would need to provide proof that they are not already married as bigamy, which is the act of marrying someone while still legally married to another, is illegal in Thailand.

A pair of elderly Thai women registered their marriage after 33 years together

Among the first couples to utilise the same-sex marriage law was an elderly Thai duo who had been together for 33 years!

Journalist, Lee Cobaj, took to her X page to highlight how former Thai Prime Minister, Srettha Thavisin, had apologised to the 2 elderly women for having to wait so long to get married to each other.

She wrote, “These newlyweds are apparently aged 63 and 78, and have been together for 33 years. Former Prime Minister Thaksin apologised that they had to wait so long for this day.”

Khaosad English confirmed that the Prime Minister had apologised to the couple while he spoke at Siam Paragon’s Marriage Equality Day celebration, where 185 couples, including the elderly duo, registered their marriages.

He did this while acknowledging the long wait for marriage equality, stating that it’s “better late than never”.

What do you think about this? Do feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section.

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