Lawmakers in Thailand’s lower house of Parliament have overwhelmingly approved a marriage equality bill hat would make the country the first in Southeast Asia to legalize equal rights for marriage partners of any gender.
  • @Minotaur@lemm.ee
    6•9 months ago

    Genuinely cannot believe it was still illegal there.

    I get that the Thai government is still on the whole conservative - but Thailand is almost most well known in many areas its rates of homosexuality, crossdressing, open prostitution, etc.

  • AutoTL;DRBEnglish
    6•9 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    Thai society largely holds conservative values, and members of the LGBTQ+ community say they face discrimination in everyday life.

    The government and state agencies are also historically conservative, and advocates for gender equality have had a hard time pushing lawmakers and civil servants to accept change.

    The bill now goes to the Senate, which rarely rejects any legislation that passes the lower house, and then to the king for royal endorsement.

    The bill amends the Civil and Commercial Code to change the words “men and women” and “husband and wife” to “individuals” and “marriage partners.” It would open up access to full legal, financial and medical rights for LGBTQ+ couples.

    Danuphorn Punnakanta, a spokesperson of the governing Pheu Thai party and president of a committee overseeing the marriage equality bill, said in Parliament that the amendment is for “everyone in Thailand” regardless of their gender, and would not deprive heterosexual couples of any rights.

    The new government led by Pheu Thai, which took office last year, has made marriage equality one of its main goals.

    The original article contains 383 words, the summary contains 175 words. Saved 54%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • @Canary9341@lemmy.ml
    1•9 months ago

    Cool! Although I’m surprised at such overwhelming support, isn’t this a pretty conservative and authoritarian country?

    • @emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works
      1•9 months ago

      Conservatives across the world aren’t a unified group. In particular, not all are opposed to homosexuality. So Thailand does have a very authoritarian government, but they are also quite LGBT friendly.