6 minutes agoJonathan HeadSoutheast Asia correspondentReporting fromBangkokBenjamin Begley/ BBCAs Thailand’s long-awaited equal marriage law comes into effect on Thursday, police officer Pisit “Kew” Sirihirunchai hopes to be the first in line to marry his long-term partner Chanatip “Jane” Sirihirunchai.Some 180 same-sex couples are registering their unions at one of Bangkok’s grandest shopping malls, in an event city officials helped organise to celebrate this legal milestone.”We have been ready for such a long time,” Pisit says. “We have just been waiting for the law to catch up and support us.”The two men have been together for seven years. Eager to formalise their relationship, they have already gone to a Buddhist monk to give them an auspicious new last name they can share – Sirihirunchai. They have also asked local officials to issue a letter of intent, which they both signed, pledging to get married.But they say having their union recognised under Thai law is what they really dreamed of. It means LGBTQ+ couples now have the same rights as any other couple to get engaged and married, to manage their assets, to inherit and to adopt children. They can make decisions about medical treatment if their partner becomes ill and incapacitated, or extend financial benefits – such as Pisit’s government pension – to their spouse.”We want to build a future together – build a house, start a small business together, maybe a café,” he adds, making a list of all that the law has enabled. “We want to build our future together and to take care of each other.”Prisit says he has the full support of his colleagues in the police station, and hopes he can encourage others working in government service to be open about their sexuality: “They should feel emboldened because they can see us coming out with no repercussions, only positive responses.”As a younger couple Prisit and Chanatip – both in their mid-30s – have experienced fewer obstacles than those who came out much earlier.But for their community, it has been a long journey. Despite Thailand’s famed tolerance towards LGBTQ+ people, activists say it took a sustained campaign to win legal recognition.Pisit Sirihirunchai”We’ve been waiting for this day for 18 years – the day everyone can recognise us openly, when we no longer need to be evasive or hide,” says 59-year-old Rungtiwa Thangkanopast, who will marry her partner of 18 years in May.She had been in a marriage, arranged by her family, to a gay man, who later died. She had a daughter, through IVF, but after her husband’s death began spending time, and later helping run, one of the first lesbian pubs in Bangkok. Then she met Phanlavee, who’s now 45 and goes by her first name only.On Valentine’s Day 2013 the two women went to the Bang Rak district office in central Bangkok to ask to be officially married – a popular place for marriage registration because the name in Thai means “Love Town”.This was the time when LGBTQ+ couples began challenging the official view of marriage as an exclusively heterosexual partnership by attempting to get marriage certificates at district offices.There were around 400 heterosexual couples waiting with them on that day. Rungtiwa and Phanlavee were refused, and the Thai media mocked their effort, using derogatory slang for lesbians.Rungtiwa ThangkanopastStill, activists managed to persuade the government to consider changing the marriage laws. A proposed civil partnership bill was put before parliament, offering some official recognition to same-sex couples, but not the same legal rights as heterosexual couples.A military coup in 2014 which deposed the elected government interrupted the movement. It would be another decade before full marriage equality was approved by parliament, in part because of the rise of young, progressive political parties that championed the cause.Their message …
