Same-sex marriage was on the rise in Asia. No longer

() – Rainbow flags fluttered in the wind as gay and lesbian couples walked hand in hand down a makeshift walkway in Bangkok’s busy Siam shopping district.

The Thai Senate had just passed a bill on marriage equality, and the local LGBTQ+ community was in a celebratory mood.

Although the ceremonies were symbolic representations of same-sex weddings, the reality could be just around the corner.

“When I was young, people said we couldn’t have a family, we couldn’t have children, so marriage was impossible,” Bangkok resident Pokpong Jitjaiyai told on the day the law was passed.

“I can now freely say that I am gay,” said Pokpong, who was looking forward to marrying his partner, Watit Benjamonkolchai.

The law, passed in June, still needs the king’s approval but is expected to be approved soon, clearing the way for Thailand to become the first jurisdiction in Southeast Asia to legalize same-sex marriage, and the third in Asia after Taiwan in 2019 and Nepal last year.

But the recent surge in progress on marriage equality in Asia may stop there, as no other government in the region seems likely to follow suit anytime soon.

“The truth is that not many governments are moving as proactively as Thailand’s,” Suen Yiu-tung, an associate professor of gender studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, told .

More than 30 jurisdictions around the world now recognise same-sex marriage, according to the Pew Research Center. Since the first same-sex marriage law was passed in the Netherlands in 2001, progress has been made mainly in Europe, the Americas and Australasia.

Just across Thailand’s borders, homosexuality is illegal in Myanmar and Malaysia. Bans also exist in Sri Lanka, Brunei, Bangladesh and Indonesia’s ultra-conservative Aceh province. Maximum penalties range from long prison terms to flogging, according to the Human Dignity Trust, a UK-based charity that supports strategic litigation around the world against laws that harm the LGBTQ+ community.

“Despite some historic victories in the region… the human rights of LGBTI people across Asia continue to be denied,” said Nadia Rahman, Policy Advisor for Amnesty International’s Global Programme on Migrants, Refugees’ Rights, Racial Justice and Gender. She added that people from these communities face “criminalisation, threats of arrest, discrimination, digital surveillance, harassment, online abuse, stigmatisation and violence.”

While liberalization in Thailand, Nepal and Taiwan was driven by their unique cultures and sociopolitical circumstances, scholars and activists said, most other Asian governments are held back by conservative social attitudes, influential religious groups and a lack of strong democratic systems.

Activists and academics in Asia say Nepal has long had a liberal judiciary willing to side with the LGBTQ+ community, while its deep-rooted culture of third-gender “hijras” laid the groundwork for liberal changes. In Thailand and Taiwan, many attribute progress to a combination of democratic development and a strong civil society.

Associate Professor Kangwan Fongkaew, who researches LGBTQ+ issues at Burapha University, said that despite political instability in recent decades, Thailand’s political system was functional enough to channel popular demands into legislation.

“The majority of Thai people want marriage equality,” Kangwan said. “And now it is time for Thailand to have it,” she added, calling it a “victory of the people.”

Unlike in mainland China — where LGBTQ+ activism is taboo and can provoke backlash from authorities — the movement has thrived in Taiwan. Activist Jennifer Lu, director of gay rights organization Outright International in Taiwan, noted the importance of the island’s functioning democratic system in the liberalization process.

“This kind of democratic practice really creates the foundation for this progressive environment,” Lu said.

Acceptance of non-traditional gender identities has only grown stronger since then. In May, Taiwan’s then-President Tsai Ing-wen invited drag queen Nymphia Wind to perform at the Presidential Office to celebrate her win on the television show “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”

While other Asian jurisdictions have the potential to become the fourth to allow LGBTQ+ couples to marry, experts are not convinced changes will come soon.

India is also a democracy and, like its neighbour Nepal, has laws protecting transgender people, making it a legitimate candidate. But activists say the authorities are lukewarm on the need for change.

Activist Anish Gawande, co-founder of Pink List India, a group that tracks politicians’ stance on LGBTQ+ issues, said understanding for sexual minorities was growing in the world’s most populous nation. He was recently appointed the first openly gay national spokesperson for a political party. But he said the government was refusing to do more than necessary to please the international community.

LGBTQ+ activists petitioned India’s Supreme Court for the right to marry, only to be told it was up to the government to decide.

The government, led by third-term Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has set up a committee to look into the issue, but without any notable results, Gawande said, adding that with neither New Delhi nor the courts taking the lead on the matter there was “a stalemate for LGBTQ+ rights in the country.”

Officials said experts had provided suggestions. has contacted the committee for comment.

One of the arguments in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage is the economic advantages of doing so, especially if neighboring economies do not do so.

Multinational companies need to relocate their staff – including those who are not heterosexual – and have been lobbying for changes in financial centres such as Singapore and Hong Kong, which they would like to attract and retain the headquarters of large companies.

“If you’re a country that welcomes these high-tech companies with very liberal policies, but the rest of society is repressive, like Singapore for example, where same-sex couples can’t get visas, governments are going to have to think about how to manage these things,” said Shawna Tang, a professor of gender studies at the University of Sydney.

But even in the face of such pressure, neither the Hong Kong nor Singapore governments appear particularly willing to liberalise.

Singapore’s parliament decriminalized sexual relations between men in 2022, but amended the constitution to effectively block legal challenges that could lead to same-sex marriage.

In Hong Kong, the Court of Final Appeal ordered the city government last September to create a legal framework to recognise the rights of same-sex couples. But months have passed and the government has yet to respond.

The court also stopped short of granting same-sex marriage, meaning this could be as far as efforts go. According to activists, Beijing has tightened its grip on the city in recent years, so the political space needed to facilitate change is shrinking.

Professor Peter Newman, from the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto, said that while things are improving in Asia, progress has been “extremely uneven”.

In at least six Asian countries, same-sex intimacy and relationships remain criminalised, as does the gender expression of transgender people, with sentences ranging from eight years and “100 lashes” in Indonesia and Malaysia, to life imprisonment in Bangladesh,” he said.

Even in places where same-sex marriage has been legalised, widespread problems persist, from bullying at school and in the workplace to stigma in health care services.

But Suen, of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said public debate had flourished across Asia, and Thailand’s decision to legalise same-sex marriage was an encouraging sign.
“The outlook is positive, but it will take some time,” Suen said.

‘s Samra Zulfaqar, Yoonjung Seo and Aishwarya Iyer contributed to this report.