One year of marriage equality

Every year on Feb 14, the world pauses to celebrate love -- traditionally through flowers, romance and promises. But this Valentine's Day in Thailand goes beyond sentiment, marking over one full year of legal marriage equality.

On Jan 23, 2025, Thailand took a bold step by passing the Marriage Equality Law, becoming the first country in Southeast Asia to legally recognise marriage for all couples, regardless of gender. Since then, thousands of LGBTI couples have formalised their unions -- securing rights related to inheritance, healthcare and family life that were previously out of reach.

This milestone was not reached overnight. From early constitutional protections to the Gender Equality Act of 2015, Thailand has steadily advanced the rights of LGBTI people. The Marriage Equality Law is the clearest affirmation yet of that trajectory. By raising the minimum age of marriage to 18, it also aligns Thailand with international standards to protect the rights of children.

Globally, Thailand joined 37 other countries last year in recognising full marital rights for same-sex couples. This statistic highlights both great progress and the reality that legal marriage equality is still the exception across nations, not yet the norm.

Regionally, Thailand's bold step matters. Across much of Asia and the Pacific, legal protections for LGBTI people remain uneven or -- in places -- contested, including where social acceptance has moved faster than formal safeguards, leaving gaps in protection in schools, workplaces and access to services.

This becomes more challenging with digitalisation and artificial intelligence (AI), as UNDP's The Next Great Divergence report warns. Without deliberate policy choices, digital transitions can widen existing inequalities rather than reduce them -- especially for groups already facing social exclusion.

Education systems, recruitment processes and public discourse are increasingly shaped by digital platforms -- often without safeguards against bias. For LGBTI people, particularly young people, inclusion is now shaped as much by what happens online and in classrooms as by what is written in law.

Recent data from Thailand reflects that gaps can persist between legal progress and lived experience. UNDP's Tolerance but Not Inclusion study -- now a few years old -- reports that half of LGBTI people interviewed experience discrimination within their families.

In education, 41% of LGBTI students and 61% of transgender women reported discrimination at school. Forty-two per cent said they have pretended to be straight to gain acceptance.

Such patterns matter because exclusion -- early and persistent -- limits educational outcomes, economic participation and wellbeing over time. One year on from passing the Equal Marriage Law, it would be timely to explore whether these patterns are changing for the better.

The implications for what happens next are clear: changing the law is step one; changing people's lived experiences is next. That will be the result of conscious choices in how systems are designed and governed. Schools must design to prevent discrimination. Workplaces must design against discrimination not only in policies, but increasingly in digital systems such as recruitment and performance management.

Many in Thailand's business community see the marriage equality law as an opportunity to strengthen the country's economic position as a safe and welcoming destination for global workers and travellers. A study commissioned by the travel platform Agoda estimates the law could attract up to 4 million additional international visitors annually, generating roughly US$2 billion (approximately 62 billion baht) in tourism revenue each year.

With the support of UNDP's work on Business and Human Rights, including the Inclusion Toolkit for Organizations and Business developed with Workplace Pride and the Sasin School of Management at Chulalongkorn University and supported by the Canadian Government, more Thai companies are thinking through how inclusive practices can boost their innovation, retention and resilience. They are playing their part in translating legal security into economic security, as Thailand's estimated 1.6 million LGBTI people join and advance in the workforce.

One year on, Thailand's Marriage Equality Law stands as a regional reference point. But laws endure only when societies uphold them. With anti-discrimination reforms and legal gender recognition still under debate, there is more work to be done to ensure that equality is consistently experienced – in homes, schools, workplaces and digital spaces.

This Valentine's Day is not only a celebration of love recognised by law. It is a reminder that inclusion is built through everyday decisions -- and that progress, once achieved, must be actively sustained.

Happy Valentine's Day -- and happy Pride in love.

Niamh Collier-Smith, Resident Representative, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Thailand.

First published in the Bangkok Post