This Valentine’s Day will see a celebration in front of the Chiang Mai District Office, as more LGBTQI couples come to legally register their marriages as well as come together for a host of other events, workshops, booths and celebrations.
Citylife thought it a good time to sit down to talk to Pongthorn Chanlearn, 55, who was one of the activists who has spearheaded the demand which has lead to the successful passing of Thailand’s Marriage Equality Act last month. As Commissioner for the Parliament’s Working Commission for the Marriage Equality Act, he has spent the past two decades working with fellow NGOs, academics, activists as well as government counterpart to secure these important rights. Here is what he has to say;
“The main point of marriage equality is that we are trying to promote LGBTQI rights. By promoting marriage rights we promote human rights. In previous times in Thai society there were no acts or bills or laws to support their rights, especially of LGBTQI people who wish to marry or establish their families. We collaborated with the government, especially policy makers, we encouraged them to be concerned about our rights. And we passed the law.
Almost 20 years ago, civil society collaborated with the political parties at the time, which was Phua Thai and the Democrats, working with the LGBTQI community to draft a domestic partnership law.
The concept of this previous law was to cater specifically to LGBTQI people. However, it separated our community from the current family law. The problem was that we didn’t want to become a specific population, so we tried to work out with government as to how to integrate our rights into the current law. That is why we didn’t want to creat a new one. So the question was how to correct the old one and add or integrate our rights into this.
It’s not just the gay community it is the variety of the entirety of the LGBTQI community, it depends on their interests and priorities.
The pursuit of and attendance to human rights issue is so strong in Thai society, it is so mainstream, and that is why we started to talk about our rights too.
The current ending of all USAID funding by the Trump government will definitely affect not just MPlus Foundation, but our entire community, as many of our initiatives and programmes have been beneficiaries. They had previously supported a variety of human rights and public health issues as well as diversity issues such as LGBTQI rights. Trump’s policies decided to stop these programmes…maybe it is good for us, it means that we will have to learn how to generate income by ourselves. We have to review our programme and collaborate more with inside donors, especially from inside the government. The Thai Public Health Office will also lose a lot of funding with this recent decisions, so big changes are ahead.
The Marriage Equality Act is the main indicator for the Thai society that we have made significant changes, especially in terms of rights. As Thailand has now become the first country in ASEAN to pass this law, it means that we accept LGBTQI people as well as others who are margianalised; it isn’t just male and female rights only. We are concerned about everyone who are Thai people, with respect. We concerned about dignity and humanity. So its not just marriage law. Next we try to open up rights for other groups.
We are developing gender recognition law, non-discrimination law and sex worker laws right now. If Thai society can develop these laws, it means that we can develop our society…better for all Thai people.
The big challenge during the course of our fight for marriage equality was in changing people’s minds. It was hard to work with entrenched policy makers’ minds. There has also been a lot of negative feedback and criticism which means that some people in Thai society do not understand what it means yet and have entrenched homophobia. However, overall there is more positive feedback as people realise that us gaining rights doesn’t take any away from them.
It is a good opportunity in Thai society that we can encourage the communities LGBTQI to become more concerned about their rights and the rights of others. Other more marginalised groups could become inspired to also fight for their rights. This could stretch across the entire Thai society and can only benefit us all as we learn to respect other people’s rights. It will change. Step by step. Over twenty years, this change took its time, but it came. It is a good chance for society to learn more, to educate people in Thai society. Some people feared that they would lose their rights if we gained ours, so there is much education left to do. So I think it is ok, if they have question like this we have a chance to feedback or try to explain that what is the real, what is the concept. We are willing to accept the feedback.
Right now we use the media to write and make understandings bout this law, we try to give more information and some data about this law. Like this event we are working with you, at Citylife and local broadcasting to get our voices heard.
Please come to join us this Valentine’s Day from 9am til noon at the Chiang Mai District Office and learn more about our rights as well as everyone’s rights.”
More information about marriage equality law please visit Facebook page: Bangkok Pride
Foundation of the sexual orientation and gender identity an right.
[Ed. Our apologies, we have since learned that Pongthorn Chailearn has moved from his position at MPlus to have founded the LinQ Foundation, working in similar areas and fields.]
