Many people will rejoice come Thursday, January 23, 2025, when same sex marriage will finally be made legal in Thailand – the first it Southeast Asia.
For many decades in the past, gays, lesbians, or basically LGBT people, were made to feel ashamed of their gender identity and denied equal rights to marriage under the laws. This will be history in less than a week from now and we hope we can set an example to our neighbours who are closely watching the arrival of a new epoch in Thailand for the LGBTQIA+ community.
While it would be impossible to put a credit to one person for making this a reality, as eventually the society has shifted to the point where LGBT people are accepted by majority of the general public as part of a bonafide and equal members of Thai society, former PM Srettha Thavisin deserves a special mention for giving it the final push when he was PM although he is no longer in power.
A prominent LGBT activist told this writer earlier this week that Srettha has been passionate about the issue since 2018, if not earlier and managed to finally convince Thai legislators that this is the right path forward.
The tourism and business sectors will also reap benefits from the greater openness of Thai society come Thursday. Already, Thailand, particularly Bangkok, is a regional hub of LGBT-friendly tourism as attested by many openly LGBT tourists and Bangkok’s Silom Soi 2 area being one of the liveliest parts of Bangkok’s nightlife.
Beyond these economic opportunities and self-congratulations and celebrations, January 23, 2025 should also be a day for Thais to reflect upon the importance of embracing equal rights, cultural diversities, and tolerance for a different way of life (as long as it doesn’t cause troubles or are at the expense of others). These are concepts at the heart of this social advancement and ought to be expanded beyond the realm of LGBT.
Think about how some ethnic minorities continue to be discriminated against, at least culturally, and made fun of. They have yet to be accepted as truly equal, particularly the hill tribe people in the far north and north west of Thailand.
Thai culture can be more diverse and rich if we embrace, and celebrate, ethnic minorities and even large migrant working groups in Thailand (chiefly from Myanmar). That most well-educated Thais have very little knowledge or familiarity about these groups and their foods, unnecessarily deprived Thai society of an opportunity to become culturally richer.
For example, many educated Thais are unfamiliar with popular Burmese foods such as mohinga (rice noodle with thick fish soup, and widely regarded as the national dish of Myanmar) despite Bangkok hosting some one million plus workers from that neighbouring country. These migrant workers continue to be treated as invisible with both the local and national governments making no attempt to encourage them to enrich Thailand culturally, such as by hosting major Burmese festivals so they could feel more at home and Thais could learn more.)
There are certainly limits to what should be accepted in the name of embracing cultural and political diversity, however. Child labour, pedophilia, eating dog meats and that of wild and protected wild animals – these are things that we have to draw the line and reject.
Nevertheless, it’s generally worth thinking about how Thailand can become a more open and inclusive society. With LGBT community gaining equal marriage rights under the law this Thursday, it’s hoped that they will also play an important role in extending the culture of tolerance and inclusion to other cultural spheres of Thai society. Same-sex marriage right in Thailand should not be the end but the beginning of making Thailand more tolerant and inclusive other spheres. Much work remains to be done.
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