theunknownhasrisen

would you care for a very small cup of tea?

Thailand’s Cabinet on Tuesday (November 21, 2023) approved an amendment to its civil code to allow same-sex marriage, with an expectation for the draft to be submitted to Parliament next month.

The amendment to the Civil and Commercial Code will change the words “men and women” and “husband and wife” to “individuals” and “marriage partners.” The next step will be an amendment to the country’s pension fund law to recognize same-sex couples.

The draft has been submitted but it does still need to pass parliament. And Thai politics are A MESS right now.

Do I personally think the draft with pass parliment?

Actually, yes. From what I know of current Thai politics and chatting with locals last time I was there.

I think this is a no brainer for the Move Forward Party, it's an easy win for them and they did campaign on it. It's certainly popular in Bangkok and would put a win on the cards for them at the end of the year, hopefully distracting from the substantial failures of their coalition thus far.

Frankly, it makes political sense to get this through now and I don't see parliament taking a hard line against it.

Pheu Thai and PM Thavisin have no reason to stand against this bill (and would have to explain themselves if they did) except that it gives Move Forward a win. And I think, right now, they still want the perception of playing nice with Move Forward, since the election wasn't that long ago.

And YES I think the tourist board (and the soft power of BL in particular) assisting in the whopping 12% of GDP that Thailand depends on and is constantly under a political lens (with some pretty fat failures recently).

If you think Thailand doesn't want to become the world's no 1 destination wedding location for queers, you got another think coming.

All that said, the government is crazy-making and often acts against it's own interest with little to no understanding of messaging and political acumen, so there's no guarantee.