Thailand’s king finalizes marriage equality law

Marriage equality is coming to Thailand.

King Maha Vajiralongkorn signed legislation on Sept. 24 to finalize a law to bring marriage equality to Thailand, capping off a legislative process that originated earlier this year. Thailand’s House of Representatives approved the law in March, while the Senate passed it in June, sending it to the king.

The marriage equality law will go into effect in 120 days, paving the way for queer couples to marry by January.

Thailand is now the third country in Asia — along with Taiwan and Nepal — to extend marriage rights to LGBTQ couples.

The new marriage law also removes gendered references to “husband” and “wife” and establishes some adoption and inheritance rights, though some advocates have expressed concern that there could eventually be issues surrounding LGBTQ adoption because the gendered terms “mother” and “father” were not replaced by “parent” in the law’s references to family.

Thailand is the latest country to approve marriage rights for queer couples this year. In February, Greece became the first Orthodox Christian country to legalize same-sex marriage. That same month, however, lawmakers in the Czech Republican failed to pass a same-sex marriage law.

In Hong Kong, momentum surrounding same-sex marriage appears to have faltered one year after the city’s government was ordered by the Court of Final Appeal to come up with a legal framework to recognize marriage equality. That has yet to come to fruition — and, according to CNN, the court itself has not approved same-sex marriage, which is a discouraging sign at a time when mainland China has sought to grow its power over Hong Kong.