section_path: Recognition of same-sex relationships and marriage
section_name: Recognition of same-sex relationships and marriage
paragraph_text: Recognition of same-sex relationships and marriage
  
  Thailand began performing and recognizing same-sex marriages on 23 January 2025. Thai opinion polls have consistently favoured legal recognition of same-sex marriages.
  
  In June 2020, Move Forward Party deputy Tunyawaj Kamolwongwat introduced a bill to legalize same-sex marriage. The public consultation on the bill was launched on 2 July.
  
  " Marriage is when a man and a woman are willing to live together, to build a husband and wife relationship to reproduce their offspring, under the morals, traditions, religion and the laws of each society. Marriage is, therefore, reserved for only a man and a woman."
  
  In 2021, the Constitutional Court ruled that Section 1448 of the Civil and Commercial Code interpreting marriages as only between women and men is constitutional, but after the release of full ruling, one phrase mentioned that members of the LGBTQ community cannot reproduce, as it is against nature, and they are unlike other animals with unusual behaviours or physical characteristics. The verdict cites LGBTQ as a different "species" that needs to be separated and studied as it is incapable of creating the "delicate bond" of human relationships. The text was criticised by the LGBT community as homophobic and politically incorrect.
  
  In 2022, a group of bills concerning same-sex unions passed their first readings in the Thai National Assembly. These include the Marriage Equality Bill proposed by the opposition Move Forward Party, which would amend the current marriage law to include couples of any gender, and the government-proposed Civil Partnership Bill, which would instead introduce civil partnerships as a separate category, granting some but not all rights given to married couples. Despite several amendments, neither bill passed the Parliament before the end of the session.
  
  On 14 February 2023, Bangkok 's Dusit district became the first jurisdiction in Thailand to issue partnership certificates, which are legally non-binding, to same-sex couples.
  
  In November 2023 Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin of the Pheu Thai Party announced that his Cabinet had approved a draft same-sex marriage law. Besides the government's version, three similar draft bills were also submitted by the Move Forward Party, the Democrat Party, and the civil sector, with all four entering parliamentary debate on 21 December.
  
  In March 2024, Thailand's lower house passed the bill with 400 voting in favor to 10 opposing it. All major parties in the country had pledged to support the bill. On April 1, the senate approved the first reading of the bill with 147 votes for, 4 against, and 7 abstaining. On 18 June 2024, Thailand passed the same-sex marriage bill with the approval of 130 of the 152 members of the Senate in attendance, with 4 voting against it and 18 abstaining. Thailand was the first Asian UN member state to approve a comprehensive same-sex marriage law, as well as the first in Southeast Asia and the 37th in the world. It received the king's formal endorsement and was published in the Royal Gazette on 24 September 2024, and became effective 120 days later on 23 January 2025. The amendment to the Civil and Commercial Code replaces the terms "men and women" and "husband and wife" with the words "individuals" and "spouses". The law also allows same-sex couples to jointly adopt children.