The government of Thailand approved this Tuesday the bill on equal marriage, which if approved by Parliament will make the country the third nation in Asia to allow same-sex unions.
The Prime Minister, Srettha Thavisin, has indicated to the media after concluding the meeting with his cabinet at the Government House that the bill will be presented to the Legislature next December 12.
Although Thailand has one of the largest LGTBI+ communities and with Asian visibility, activists argue that the country’s conservative laws do not reflect changes and attitudes in society.
In 2022, the House of Representatives (Lower House) already debated several bills in this sense, which ranged from civil unions for same-sex couples to equal marriage, but it did not approve any proposal before the dissolution of the Legislature prior to the elections last May.
Precisely, the current bill is heir to one of those proposals, promoted by the Move Forward party – which won the elections but failed to form a government – which was endorsed by the deputies in the first reading.