Thailand’s parliament approved a same-sex marriage law on Wednesday. the most important legislative step to make Thailand the third country in Asia to legalize LGBTI unions.

The new law was adopted in the third and final reading. In the lower house there were 399 votes in favor, 10 against and two abstentions. dominated by a government coalition led by the Pheu Thai Party.

Some of the deputies who spoke at today’s meeting They wore flags and decorations in the colors of the LGBTI rainbow flag. and they celebrated this approval with applause and hugs.

Among the fundamental changes, it includes the name of marriage from “a man and a woman” to “two people” and changing the legal status of “husband and wife” to “married couple” without gender, in addition to guaranteeing LGBTI unions the same rights that heterosexual unions currently enjoy.

Following today’s approval of the law, which began being discussed in parliament on December 21, it still has a couple of formal steps to go through before it becomes law. how to achieve final Senate approval and publication in the official state newspaper after being signed by the King of Thailand.

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Once it comes into effect, around the end of the year, Thailand will become third Asian country to recognize marriage equality, after Taiwan and Nepal and first in Southeast Asia.

Although the country has one of the largest and most visible LGBTI communities in all of Asia, activists say conservative Thai laws They do not reflect the changes and moods of society over recent decades.

Last year, the lower house already discussed several similar bills, but did not approve any proposal before the dissolution of the Legislative Assembly ahead of elections last May, in which the reformist Avanzar won a landslide victory, although it failed to form a government.

(EFE)