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How Thailand鈥檚 same-sex marriage law could impact South East Asia

Gay couples in Thailand can register their unions from January 2025.

Thailand has become the first country in South East Asia to legalise same-sex marriage. The new law means that LGBTQ+ couples will have the same legal rights as other couples when it comes to adoption, inheritance and medical decisions. It鈥檚 taken activists years of campaigning to get to this point, and in September 2024 Thailand's king signed it into law. It will come into force in January 2025.

大象传媒 Thai journalist Panisa Aemocha, in Bangkok, explains the same-sex marriage legalisation in Thailand and attitudes towards LGBTQ+ in the country. This includes how Thailand has embraced boy love (BL) and girl love (GL) TV series - which show same-sex couples.

We also hear from Best Chitsanupong Nithiwana, an activist who co-founded the Young Pride Club in Chiang Mai, who tells us what this new law means for same-sex couples in Thailand. And we ask, could other nearby countries do the same?

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Presenter: Hannah Gelbart
Producers: Mora Morrison, Benita Barden and Julia Ross-Roy
Video producer: Baldeep Chahal
Editor: Verity Wilde

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12 minutes

Last on

Fri 22 Nov 2024 03:50GMT
大象传媒 World Service East and Southern Africa, South Asia, West and Central Africa & East Asia only

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