Thailand is set to become the first Southeast Asian nation to legalize same-sex marriage after the country’s House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a marriage equality bill yesterday. The legislation was passed by 400 of the 415 lawmakers present, with only 10 voting against it, according to Reuters. The decade-long Thai campaign for same-sex marriage has … Read more
Conservatives in Thailand like to buck the trend. It was Anutin Charnvirakul, the health minister under the former military government, who legalized cannabis (and it was the self-styled liberal democrats in the government who wanted to criminalize it again), and it was those military reactionaries who declared that the country’s war on drugs had been … Read more
Yesterday, Thai lawmakers resoundingly passed a package of four draft laws on same-sex marriage, moving the country a step closer to becoming Southeast Asia’s first nation to enshrine such unions in law. According to the Bangkok Post, the draft legislation received nearly unanimous support in the lower house of Parliament and was approved by an … Read more
Advertisement Ten months ago, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced the city-state would do away with Section 377A, a colonial-era law prohibiting same-sex relations between consenting men. Since then, queer people have had to navigate an uneasy new reality in which male homosexuality is no longer a crime, while public discourse and mainstream media … Read more
ASEAN Beat | Society | Southeast Asia This year’s Pride Parade brought into the spotlight Move Forward Party leader Pita Limjaroenrat, who reaffirmed his support for the country’s LGBTQ community. Thailand’s Pita Limjaroenrat, the leader of the Move Forward Party, takes part in the annual Pride Parade in Bangkok, Thailand, June 5, 2023. Credit: Facebook/Pita Limjaroenrat Advertisement On Sunday, … Read more