Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2: January twenty third was probably an unremarkable Thursday for you,
Speaker 2: But for Plus and Gay, a lesbian couple living in Bangkok, Thailand,
Speaker 2: it was a big day, the first day same sex
Speaker 2: marriage was officially made legal in the country.
Speaker 3: We'd done sleep at night, We wig up at three
Speaker 3: am and go to Seamparocon at six am in the
Speaker 3: early morning, like a first couple in the corridor from
Speaker 3: Siam Parcon.
Speaker 2: That's Gay, a thirty two year old pastry chef. They
Speaker 2: and their partner Plus were first in line to get
Speaker 2: married at Siam Paragon, a bustling shopping mall in Bangkok.
Speaker 2: After waiting for almost two hours, they sat down in
Speaker 2: front of an official and signed papers that made them
Speaker 2: a married couple in the eyes of the law. In
Speaker 2: the video so they sent us of the event, the
Speaker 2: couple are seated next to each other at a table,
Speaker 2: holding hands, watching the official sign off on documents in
Speaker 2: front of them. Plus sniffling holding back tears of joy.
Speaker 2: Gay looks more composed, holding Plus's hands and reaching over
Speaker 2: to give them a reassuring pat on the leg, and
Speaker 2: as the official closes the file, they each bring their
Speaker 2: palms together and bow slightly to him in a gesture
Speaker 2: of things. They look at each other and hug through tears.
Speaker 2: For the signing ceremony, Gay and Plus were dressed in
Speaker 2: matching traditional wedding attire of red, white and gold.
Speaker 3: Does she you were the the raidskirt like a tidy sigh?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Tight close.
Speaker 3: It's the first time she sees where the tycos doom
Speaker 3: and very shying and excited for her.
Speaker 2: She looks like a princess from the picture.
Speaker 3: Yes, I tell her she is my twinsip.
Speaker 1: Every day.
Speaker 2: After the registration, Plus and Gay joined a pride parade
Speaker 2: to se celebrate the historic milestone with hundreds of other
Speaker 2: same sex couples who got married in the same mall.
Speaker 2: The shopping center is no longer a registration site, but
Speaker 2: there are now more than nine hundred offices across Thailand
Speaker 2: that can officially license same sex marriages. That began January
Speaker 2: twenty third. Recognizing same sex marriage is a big change
Speaker 2: for Thailand.
Speaker 4: Actually, Southeast Asian countries have a history of colonial era
Speaker 4: laws that prosecute homosexuality.
Speaker 2: That's Bloomberg reporter putpitcha tanaka sempipat like most Thai people.
Speaker 2: She goes by a nickname Best and is based in Bangkok.
Speaker 4: So in a lot of countries, sexual relations between people
Speaker 4: of the same sex are actually criminalized.
Speaker 1: So Thailand is the.
Speaker 4: First country in Southeast Asia to recognize same sex marriage
Speaker 4: and only the third place in Asia after Taiwan and
Speaker 4: Nepal to do so.
Speaker 2: It's certainly a victory for the Thai LGBTQ community that's
Speaker 2: been fighting for marriage equality for more than a decade.
Speaker 2: But by passing this law, Thailand isn't just a pioneer
Speaker 2: for cultural change in Southeast Asia. It's also eyeing some
Speaker 2: big economic gains.
Speaker 4: The industry that is going to benefit the most would
Speaker 4: be Thailand's tourism industry, which is a huge economic driver
Speaker 4: and calls for twelve percent of Thailand's GDP. The Tourism
Speaker 4: of Thailand estimated that LGBTQ tourists spend about forty percent
Speaker 4: more each trip on average than just a regular tourist,
Speaker 4: so there's a lot of incentives for Thailand to really
Speaker 4: try to attract more LGBTQ visitors.
Speaker 2: Welcome to The Big Take Asia from Bloomberg News. I'm Wanha.
Speaker 2: Every week we take you inside some of the world's
Speaker 2: biggest and most powerful economies and the markets, tycoons, and
Speaker 2: businesses that drive this ever shifting region. Today on the show,
Speaker 2: a special episode for Valentine's Day, Thailand's same sex marriage law.
Speaker 2: How will it boost tourism, a crucial industry for the
Speaker 2: country's economy, and what does this mean for other LGBTQ rights.
Speaker 2: A week after Plus and Gay got married, we sat
Speaker 2: down with a couple somebody Khau learn supadka a.
Speaker 1: Zaia.
Speaker 3: Hello, my name is Gay Kanet. I'm thirty two years
Speaker 3: old and the percy here.
Speaker 2: Gay and Plus were high school sweethearts, and when Gay
Speaker 2: first met Plus at just fifteen years old, they said,
Speaker 2: it was love at first sight for me.
Speaker 3: He like shiny and rainbow for me because I don't
Speaker 3: have girlfriend before. He like my first love in my life.
Speaker 2: Plus and Gay are both from traditional families, and so
Speaker 2: in the beginning they hid their relationship at home, and
Speaker 2: Gay says at the time Thailand wasn't so receptive to
Speaker 2: gay couples. People would give them weird looks as they
Speaker 2: held hands walking on the street.
Speaker 3: Yes, really uncomfortable because we go to the shopping mall right,
Speaker 3: if we take a hand, ladies or some something is
Speaker 3: weird in Thailand. You don't have You don't go each
Speaker 3: other like a koppo olifen go to get the now,
Speaker 3: I think it's okay, But ten years ago, no time.
Speaker 2: Society did become more open minded over the next decade,
Speaker 2: so much so that Gay and Plus's families eventually accepted
Speaker 2: them as a couple, and in twenty twenty two, for
Speaker 2: the first time, a Pride parade took place in Thailand.
Speaker 2: Of course, Gay and Plus joined, but social acceptance is
Speaker 2: just one part of the equation for same sex couples.
Speaker 2: Plus and Gay had been living together for years, but
Speaker 2: they weren't able to make the kind of basic life
Speaker 2: decisions that other heterosexual couples make all the time, like
Speaker 2: buying a house or adopting a child. They weren't able
Speaker 2: to register as each other's next of kin, either, which
Speaker 2: became an issue when Plus had to undergo a major
Speaker 2: bio duct surgery.
Speaker 3: I need her mother to sigh when she needs to
Speaker 3: form the big surgery. And it's so sad because I
Speaker 3: met her every day. I leave with her, but I
Speaker 3: don't sigh when he was sick. But I don't sign
Speaker 3: for anything.
Speaker 2: How do you guys think this new law is going
Speaker 2: to change your lives going forward?
Speaker 3: I think from now we like a husband and wife.
Speaker 3: We have property and the bang from everything. I think
Speaker 3: open because we have the marriage license. Now, we have
Speaker 3: health insurance.
Speaker 2: For now, game plus are planning to start a business together.
Speaker 2: And the honeymoon to a soccer She lies?
Speaker 1: She lies to your band.
Speaker 3: Killed usja Osaka.
Speaker 2: You mean Universal Studios Japan.
Speaker 1: I want to go too.
Speaker 2: What did it take for Thailand to pass this law
Speaker 2: and the gains for the country's economy that's after the break.
Speaker 2: To better understand how Thailand became the first country in
Speaker 2: Southeast Asia to recognize same sex marriage, we brought.
Speaker 4: In Patia Tanaka San Pipat. You can call me by
Speaker 4: my tight nickname, which is Best. I'm a bureau reporter
Speaker 4: at Bloomberg News in Bangkok.
Speaker 1: Best.
Speaker 2: What does the law change mean in practice?
Speaker 1: Right? So, this so called marriage equality law is essentially
Speaker 1: an amendment to the Civil and Commercial Code, which is
Speaker 1: one of the seven primary codes of law in Thailand. Actually,
Speaker 1: and what it.
Speaker 4: Does is it swaps out gender specific terms for gender
Speaker 4: neutral ones, for example, as it was before the Civil
Speaker 4: and Commercial Code recognizes marriages only between a man and
Speaker 4: a woman and now recognized as marriages between two individuals
Speaker 4: instead of between a husband and a wife, so essentially
Speaker 4: removed gender restrictions from the fundamental law that affects all
Speaker 4: aspects of one person's life from birth to death. Basically
Speaker 4: because the Civil and Commercial Code has nearly two thousand
Speaker 4: sections relating to all aspects of your life, and changing
Speaker 4: and removing gender restrictions from the language of this law
Speaker 4: is really a fundamental change to ensure and guarantee equal rights,
Speaker 4: especially in terms of marriage.
Speaker 2: And what specific impact would this change in the law
Speaker 2: have on gay couples lives.
Speaker 4: It's basically nothing short of a life changer. It spends
Speaker 4: things like child adoption and inheritance and assets management, as
Speaker 4: well as signing medical content forms for each other, which
Speaker 4: really is important when you have a life or death emergency.
Speaker 2: Best how long has this fight for marriage equality been
Speaker 2: going on in Thailand, I.
Speaker 1: Would say at least the last thirteen years.
Speaker 4: I remember seeing a headline in twenty thirteen of lesbian
Speaker 4: couple going to register their marriage at a district office.
Speaker 4: It was Valentine's Day. Lots of people were there. They
Speaker 4: were the only couple that was the same sex, and
Speaker 4: basically authorities turned them away because authorities didn't know what
Speaker 4: to do with the same sex couple. And the headlines
Speaker 4: ran pretty derogatory terms, pretty not nice terms, and had
Speaker 4: a picture of like people looking at them nervously. But
Speaker 4: last month, on January twenty third, the day this law
Speaker 4: came into effect, it's really surprising for me to see
Speaker 4: the same couple show up at the mass registration event
Speaker 4: that I was at, and it was really heartwarming to
Speaker 4: see them finally able to get married after all these years.
Speaker 2: It must have been momentous for these couples. Why did
Speaker 2: it takes so long, more than a decade, right for
Speaker 2: this law to come to fruition.
Speaker 4: Yeah, in the big picture, Thailand was dominated by male
Speaker 4: military leaders for the better half of the century, and
Speaker 4: sad to say, these leaders were very much like Mashow
Speaker 4: men who had really rigid ideas about gender roles and
Speaker 4: social hierarchies on what one is supposed to do within
Speaker 4: such a structure, and it was not a discussion that
Speaker 4: people could just have. But still, LGBTQ activists had been
Speaker 4: really trying in the past two decades at least to
Speaker 4: campaign for LGBTQ rights, so tragedies and bias was being
Speaker 4: slowly shipped away in Thailand.
Speaker 1: It was a long and gradual progress.
Speaker 2: And was there tipping point over this period.
Speaker 4: I would say that tipping point was actually the twenty
Speaker 4: twenty three general election. Within the first few months of
Speaker 4: starting a new government, they submitted their versions of the
Speaker 4: amendment to the Civil and Commercial Code and the lawmakers
Speaker 4: consolidated that into one bill and they passed it in
Speaker 4: parliament in March twenty twenty four with an overwhelming amount
Speaker 4: of support, which was four hundred votes for.
Speaker 1: The bill and only ten votes against.
Speaker 4: This was really a low hanging fruit for them because
Speaker 4: so much work had been done by that point that
Speaker 4: all they really needed.
Speaker 1: To do is just give it a serious push.
Speaker 4: And it was also in their benefit to try to
Speaker 4: do this within the first few months of taking power,
Speaker 4: so that they could also politically decrease the resistance that
Speaker 4: might come from other controversial things that they were planning
Speaker 4: to push in parliament as well.
Speaker 2: Thailand's new ruling party had a number of more contentious
Speaker 2: issues on its agenda, such as legalizing casinos and online gambling,
Speaker 2: which faced a lot more opposition there were also eyeing
Speaker 2: the economic benefits that this change could bring.
Speaker 4: Lawmakers expected that this was going to create a huge
Speaker 4: windfall for the tourism industry, which is a huge economic
Speaker 4: driver for Thailand, contributing twelve percent to.
Speaker 1: The country's GDP.
Speaker 4: A recent study by AGODA found that recognizing same sex
Speaker 4: marriage would benefit Thailand with an additional four million foreign
Speaker 4: visitors per year and that is expected to create about
Speaker 4: two billion dollars in economic value within the next two years.
Speaker 2: And even though the marriage equality law was passed with
Speaker 2: an overwhelming majority in parliament, are we seeing any resistance
Speaker 2: from other groups to these broader LGBTQ rights.
Speaker 4: There are some resistance in the Muslim community in Thailand.
Speaker 4: So Thailand is a predominantly Buddhist country and we have
Speaker 4: a Muslim majority population in three southern provinces in Thailand.
Speaker 4: And since marriage equality was legalized in Thailand, we saw
Speaker 4: banners being put up in mosques around the capitol Bangkok
Speaker 4: at least that basically said same sex marriages are not
Speaker 4: allowed here on these sites. So the law is effective
Speaker 4: across the country, but in some areas it might be
Speaker 4: culturally tricky, such as the Muslim majority provinces in the South.
Speaker 2: Now does a marriage equality law pave the way for
Speaker 2: other rights for the LGBTQ community. What's next after this?
Speaker 4: There are lots of other changes happening across the board
Speaker 4: that are not directly related to LGBTQ rights but have
Speaker 4: a lot to do with LGBTQ people. For example, the
Speaker 4: Health Ministry has proposed that it might push for commercial
Speaker 4: sorocracy to be legalized, which would allow LGBTQ couples to
Speaker 4: use circusy services and have children.
Speaker 1: Also, there's a lot a lot of talks about.
Speaker 4: Pushing for sex work to be protected under TAY law,
Speaker 4: and this is relevant because a lot of ALGBTQ people
Speaker 4: are in the sex work industry, and lawmakers are also
Speaker 4: talking about potentially proposing bills to legalize prostitution, which, believe it.
Speaker 1: Or not, in Thailand has been illegal since the nineteen sixties.
Speaker 4: But still this is a huge stepping stone for sure.
Speaker 4: LGBTQ activists have said that there are more agendas that
Speaker 4: need to be pushed through in order to really advance
Speaker 4: LGBTQ rights more.
Speaker 2: This is the Big Take Asia from Bloomberg News. I'm wanh.
Speaker 2: This episode was produced by Young Young, Naomi and Jessica Beck.
Speaker 2: It was edited by Patti Hirsch and Thomas Cutty Abraham.
Speaker 2: It was sound designed by Young, mixed by Alex Suguiera,
Speaker 2: and fact checked by Eddie dun Our senior producer is
Speaker 2: Namely Shaven, and our senior editor is Elizabeth Ponso. Nicole
Speaker 2: Bloomster Bower is our executive producer, and Sagebauman is Bloomberg's
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