section_path: Same-sex marriage/Marriage Equality Act
section_name: Marriage Equality Act
paragraph_text: Marriage Equality Act
  
  In June 2020, Deputy Tunyawat Kamolwongwat from the Move Forward Party introduced a bill to legalise same-sex marriage to the National Assembly. A public consultation on the bill was launched on 2 July 2020. In June 2022, a couple of same-sex union bills passed their first readings in Parliament. These included the Marriage Equality Bill proposed by the opposition Move Forward Party, which would have amended the Civil and Commercial Code to include couples of any gender, and a government-proposed civil partnership bill, which would have instead introduced civil partnerships as a separate category, granting some, but not all, of the rights given to married couples. Despite several amendments, neither bill passed Parliament before it was dissolved ahead of the 2023 election.
  
  In November 2023, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin of the Pheu Thai Party announced that his government had approved a draft same-sex marriage law, which Parliament began to debate on 21 December 2023. Besides the government bill, three additional versions proposed by the Move Forward Party and the Democrat Party were considered. All four bills passed overwhelmingly by 369 votes to 10 on 21 December 2023, with the House of Representatives approving the formation of an ad-hoc committee to combine the four draft bills into one over 15 days before further debates in 2024. On 27 March 2024, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a unified draft law by 400 votes to 10 in third reading, with two abstentions and three not voting. The bill passed its first reading in the Senate on 2 April by a 147 to 4 vote. On 29 May, the chair of the ad-hoc committee announced that the Senate was expected to hold a parliamentary session on 18 June to vote on the bill. That day, the bill was approved by the Senate in its final reading without amendments, therefore requiring no further action from the House of Representatives. It received royal assent from King Vajiralongkorn on 12 August 2024 and was published in the Royal Gazette on 24 September 2024. The law came into effect on 23 January 2025. Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra welcomed the promulgation on social media. The enactment of the Marriage Equality Act (Thai: พระราชบัญญัติสมรสเท่าเทียม, Phraratchabanyat Somrot Thaothiam, pronounced) made Thailand the first country in Southeast Asia and the second in Asia after Taiwan to legalise same-sex marriage. Article 1,448 of the Civil and Comerical Code now reads:
  
  Marriage can be conducted only when both parties have completed their eighteenth year of age. But the Court may, in case of having appropriate reason, allow them to marry before attaining such age.
  
  Ahead of the law's implementation, Bangkok Pride leader Ann Chumaporn stated that the organisation would work with the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration to organise a mass wedding ceremony on 23 January 2025, with the goal of having 1,448 same-sex couples participate, symbolising the Civil and Commercial Code section amended by the Marriage Equality Act. Activists also urged communities in other provinces to organize similar mass wedding ceremonies. Prime Minister Shinawatra invited several same-sex couples to the Government House to celebrate their marriages, writing on Instagram: "January 23, 2025 will be the day we all make history together, the love of everyone is legally recognised with honour and dignity." According to the Ministry of Interior, more than 1,754 same-sex couples married on the first day of legalization, with about 650 in Bangkok.
  
  On 19 May 2025, the King and the Queen of Thailand officiated the first-ever royally-sponsored wedding ceremony of a same-sex couple. Earlier, on 1 February 2025, the King and the Queen presented a bouquet and gifts to the couple in celebration of their marriage registration.