In January 2025, same-sex couples in Thailand celebrated the introduction of 'marriage for all'. Activists describe the legalization as a milestone. However, equal rights are still a long way off and more needs to be done to ensure the protection of the wider LGBT+ community.

Thailand is only the third Asian country after Nepal and Taiwan to legalize same-sex marriage. Efforts had been underway for a long time and civil society pressure was growing. The first draft law was drawn up as early as 2012, but it was temporarily halted by the military coup two years later. Only in 2023 and after some political upheaval, the conservative government introduced a new law to legalize same-sex marriage. “They could no longer avoid the issue,” says an activist. “It would have been disadvantageous for the government to oppose it.”

At the same time, marriage for all has been depoliticized in Thailand. Activists call this “rainbow capitalism”, because companies with corresponding economic interests also rallied behind it. Overall, the move can be seen as a strategic concession by the government to defuse more radical demands of the LGBT+ community and force the movement into a neoliberal framework. Nonetheless, the long, arduous struggle to achieve marriage for all has been a success. Activists thus hope that the law will ensure more equality in Thailand and prove to be a first step towards a fairer society.

Learn more in this article by Stefan Mentschel, director of the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung's Hanoi Office.