Why Thailand has become a paradise for LGBT couples

“For us it was a long struggle full of tears.”

That’s how Ann “Waaddao” Chumaporn describes the years leading up to this moment – ​​on Thursday, when same-sex marriage becomes legal in Thailand, and more than a hundred couples will marry in one of Bangkok’s biggest shopping malls, in a riot of color and celebration.

And the same question that was heard all the time a long campaign to obtain equal marriage passed will ask again: why Thailand? Why nowhere else, except Taiwan and Nepal, in Asia?

People think they know the answer. Thailand is known to be open and accepting of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and trans people. They have long been visible in all layers of society. Thai people are relaxed about almost everything. “Mai pen rai” – no big deal – is the national phrase. Buddhist beliefs, followed by more than 90% of Thais, do not prohibit the LGBT lifestyle. Therefore, equal marriage was inevitable.

Except it isn’t. “It wasn’t easy,” says Ms. Waaddao, who organizes the Pride March in Bangkok.

The first Pride march in Thailand was held only 25 years ago. Back then, it was difficult to get approval from the police, and the march was a chaotic, unfocused event. After 2006, only two marches were held until 2022. In 2009, a planned pride march in Chiang Mai had to be abandoned due to threats of violence.

“We were not accepted by our own families and society,” adds Mrs. Waaddao. “There were times when we didn’t think marriage equality would ever happen, but we never gave up.”

For all Thailand’s general tolerance of LGBT people, gaining equal rights, including marriage, required a determined campaign to change attitudes in Thai officials and society. And attitudes have changed.

When Chakkrit “Ink” Vadhanavira started dating his partner in 2001, they were both actors playing lead roles in TV serials. At the time, the Thai Ministry of Health still officially described homosexuality as a mental illness.

“At that time, society could not accept a gay man playing the main male roles. There were many gossips about us in the media, most of them untrue, which really stressed us out,” recalls Mr. Chakkrit.

“That’s when we decided that if we were going to date each other, we had to leave showbiz.”

They are still together, but have been out of the limelight for more than 20 years, running a successful production company.

A lot has changed in that time – and their industry deserves credit for that.

The way LGBT characters are portrayed in Thai TV dramas, from comic oddities to mainstream roles, has made a big difference, says Tinnaphop Sinsomboonthong, an assistant professor at Thammasat University who identifies as queer.

“Today they present us as normal characters, like you see in real life,” he says. “The kind of LGBTQ+ colleague you can have in the office or your LGBTQ+ neighbor. This has really helped change perceptions and values ​​across generations.”

The so-called Boy Love dramas helped wrap the rest of society around the idea of ​​not just tolerance, but full acceptance and equal rights for the community.

These romantic television dramas that depict love affairs between handsome young men have grown immensely in popularity over the past decade, especially during the Covid pandemic.

They are now one of Thailand’s most successful cultural products, with large audiences in places like China. Series like My School President and Love Sick have hundreds of millions of views on streaming networks.

At the same time, activists have become more focused and united in their efforts to change the law. Many different LGBT groups came together in the Change 1448 campaign – 1448 is the clause in the Thai Civil Code that covers the definition of marriage – and later in the Rainbow Coalition for Marriage Equality.

They connected with other groups fighting for greater rights and freedoms in Thailand and learned to work with political parties in parliament to persuade them to change their position on the law.

The continuation of Pride Marches in 2022 and getting the government to recognize and promote Thailand’s appeal as an attractive destination for LGBT travelers also helped change public perception.

“We didn’t fight, we negotiated,” says Mr Tinnaphop. “We knew we had to talk to Thai society and little by little we changed attitudes.”

The passage of the Equal Marriage Bill through parliament was also aided by political events in Thailand.

Five years after the 2014 coup, the country was ruled by a conservative military government, which was only willing to consider recognizing civil partnerships for LGBT couples, without full rights such as inheritance.

But in the 2019 elections that returned Thailand to civilian rule, a new, youthful reformist party called Future Forward, which fully supported equal marriage, fared unexpectedly well. They won the third largest share of seats, revealing a growing hunger for change in Thailand.

When a year later Future Forward has been disbanded controversial court ruling, sparked months of student-led protests calling for sweeping reforms, including curbs on the monarchy’s power.

LGBT activists were prominent in these protests, which gave them greater national significance. The protests eventually died down, and many leaders were arrested for questioning the role of the monarchy.

But in the 2023 elections, the successor to Future Forward, which calls itself Move forward, even better performance than 2019. winning more seats than any other party. Again, it was clear that the desire for change was felt among Thais of all ages.

Move Forward was blocked from forming a government by conservatives who opposed his call for sweeping political reforms.

But at that time, equal marriage was less controversial. Few opposed it. And its adoption gave the clumsy and unpopular coalition government that was formed without Moving Forward a quick achievement that pleased most of the country.

Thailand, however, is an exception in Asia. Several other countries in the region are likely to follow suit.

The influence of Islam in Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei makes the idea of ​​equal marriage undesirable. LGBT communities there face discrimination and prosecution; in Brunei, sex between men is punishable by death.

Acceptance of LGBT couples living together openly is growing in the Philippines. But the Roman Catholic Church strongly opposes same-sex marriage.

In Vietnam, like Thailand, there are no religious or ideological barriers, but campaigning to change the law, as happened in Thailand, is difficult under a repressive regime. About the same is true for China. Until the ruling Communist Party supports equal marriage, of which it shows no signs, it cannot happen.

Even in democracies like Japan and South Korea – where political parties are largely conservative and dominated by older men – the outlook looks bleak.

“It’s mostly conservative Christians who block it,” says Chae-yoon Han, executive director of the Beyond the Rainbow Foundation in South Korea.

“Most, if not all, of the politicians in President Yoon’s conservative party are devout Christians and have framed marriage equality as a ‘leftist agenda’, potentially opening society up to a ‘leftist, communist takeover’.”

India appeared close to legalizing same-sex marriage in 2023 when the decision came down in the Supreme Court – but the judges refusedsaying that it was up to parliament.

So Thailand hopes to benefit from being a pioneer. Tourism is one of the few areas of Thailand’s economy that is doing well in its post-pandemic recovery, and the country is considered a safe and welcoming destination for LGBT tourists.

An increasing number of same-sex couples from other Asian countries are now choosing to live here.

The legal recognition they can get for their marriages will allow them to raise children and grow old with almost all the rights and protections afforded to heterosexual couples.