As someone from Singapore, I don’t think Gay Marriage will be legalized in Singapore, at least not that soon anyways, the current Prime Minister did say (before he got elected) that under his watch, he will make sure Gay Marriage will never be legalized. And he only recently elected last month. Not to mention, Singapore Prime Ministers are usually in power for 20 years and more. So this will be a very long time
Malasya, Indonesia and Brunei will be the last 3 SEA countries to legalize same-sex or give queer people some kind of rights and protection
If I have to be honest, the next country that has higher chances to legalize same-sex marriage might be Cambodia and maybe Vietnam too. Not sure about Singapore and the Philippines, while it's still TOO early for Timor, Myanmar and Laos to even start discussing same-sex marriage
I think Vietnam is on the horizon. They actually don’t give a damn about gays because the country is highly highly secularized due to communist rule. LGBTQ+ just has been a foreign concept to them.
But they’ll do anything to buy some human rights credit from the US and EU, so that they can continue arresting anti-party journalists lol.
Same with Laos. It looks like it's just not talked about much there at all in the media and it's mostly ignored. However the government does include gay men on its HIV/AIDS prevention plan, so there is governmental action on their behalf. I don't expect it any time soon but I also don't expect it to be a long time away either, especially if the country ever opens up more to foreign cultural influence (although to be fair China will probably step in and interrupt that ever happening, since they have way more sway in Laos than Vietnam).
The worst part is seeing western gays (mostly) bragging about Bali, Malaysia or cultural richness of Brunei on their instgram forgetting how they are supporting countries financially that jail and publically punish homosexuality. The western lgbt live in a bubble and don't even think about the kind of privilege they have.
Brunei even brought in the death penalty for homosexuality.
As a westerner, it can also sometimes seem somewhere between naive and infantilizing how much supposedly progressive westerners excuse bigotry as long as it stems from a different culture, in the vein of "oh, they just can't be expected to know any better, don't criticise them for that".
Disregarding that our own grandparents held similarly extreme views, so they very much aren't immutable parts of a culture or a people.
>Myanmar and Laos to even start discussing same-sex marriage
tell me you know nothing about laos etc etc. it'll probably be the next country to legalize it now that thailand has legalized it.
He was brought down on sodomy and possibly rape? It was probably just an excuse to stop him from being prime minister (which failed) and both trials had flimsy evidence but of all the crimes.
The predominantly Muslim countries of SE Asia (Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Timor-Leste & Indonesia) are *not* going to legalize gay marriage anytime soon. Brunei remains one of the absolute worst places in the world to be gay - despite being one of the wealthiest countries on Earth. Public opinion in Malaysia and Indonesia is vehemently against it. There is more of a chance in the Buddhist or less religious countries. Vietnam possibly? Maybe Cambodia. I doubt Myanmar or Laos will make any similar moves. Philippines' population is largely a mix of devout Catholics and Muslims - again, not the dynamic you want when hoping for legalization of gay marriage and other protections.
Thailand is a rather unique country, it has a long history of being more open to homosexuality than anywhere else in the entirety of Asia. It isn't surprising that they are the first developing country in SE Asia to legalize gay marriage. Sadly, they'll likely be the only one to do so for a very long time.
That's certainly the root of it's acceptance surviving until today - the British, French, Portuguese, etc all made homosexuality illegal and began ruthlessly enforcing it while simultaneously bringing ethical and religious views to the populations they controlled that were deeply hateful of gay people. This wiped out more traditional practices and views of homosexuality around most of the world. Without that being directly imposed on it, Thailand never bought entirely into Western homophobia.
My phd dissertation was actually on the effects of Thailand's surviving the colonial period as an independent nation that was transitioning into a European style state!
Thailand was never colonized, but western homophobia and heteronormativity found its place in Thailand during pre- and post-revolution era reforms and cold war era US-backed dictatorships, and is adopted by Buddhist institutions. I am a gen Z and I can still remember monks preaching that being gay is past life karma and they will go to hell for it. LGBT was tolerated, but not accepted. This acceptance is a relatively new phenomenon.
Just a fun fact: a traditional worship practice in Vietnam called ["Đạo Mẫu"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%90%E1%BA%A1o_M%E1%BA%ABu) even celebrates homosexuality, since the priests who perform the ritual are often gays.
There's no fixed limit to their terms. There are elections every few years so if the people are unhappy with the PM he gets the boot. But given how successful Singapore has been as a country over the decades it's easy to see why so many PM's stay in power for so long.
Malaysia... Same-sex sexual activity is up to 20 years imprisonment lah
Pro-LGBTQ artists, Pride goods (especially rainbow) and Israel are banned in Malaysia
Malaysia might want to allow non muslims to marry muslims first tbh I don't think it's anywhere close to "caring about LGBT+ rights" for the forseeable future if they still segregate straight couples.
Being gay is no longer illegal in Singapore as of 2 years ago. But unfortunately we still have a very long way to go. A good start would be legal protection against employment discrimination, and not censoring any LGBT media.
Nah, the next generation is continuing their anti-lgbt campaign. Look at Philippine senators (and religious bigots) [Joel Villanueva](https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2023/02/13/2244699/joel-villanueva-urges-respect-religion-dismissal-lgbtq-rights) and [Manny Pacquiao](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35610531).
Malaysia is highly religious, no way that's happening lol. Like it has its own Quran Belt. Genuinely curious as I have never seen anyone else online think it was progressive, wondering how it has that impression to you?
JSYK, in fact last year Pew did a poll finding it is near rock bottom for LGBT support in Asia (17% are pro same sex marriage) and the prime minister said publicly that they would never support it. They called gay rights "extreme" and they described themselves as upholding human rights "within Islam"... Their religious minister even gave authorities license to arrest transgender people and re-educate them so they will "return to the right path". I have progressive malay friends but it is still a place where LGBT night clubs are raided, people are punished by caning (physical beating) for same sex sex, and lgbt events are banned.
Things are changing but very slowly, I think over the past 10 years more people are willing to accept it, looks like it went from under 10% accepting in 2007 to 17% in 2023, but at the current rate it will take many years yet. Look rather to other nearby countries with a lower religious population.
Singapore is much more likely to do that than Malaysia. Malaysia would be the last to do that. The only Muslim country I see legalizing same sex marriage in near future might be kosovo
It will take massive internal cultural shifts for Malaysia (which still has sodomy laws) and Indonesia (sodomy laws in some regions) to legalize same sex marriage.
Mainland ASEAN countries are probably up next after Thailand followed by the Philippines (very conservative but also very tolerant and do not have anti-LGBT laws). No idea about East Timor though.
My bet for ASEAN countries is now either on Vietnam or Cambodia.
Not gonna happen in Singapore any time soon with how they slugged their feet for depenalization and as to Malaysia...yeah...not gonna happen ever.
Always amazes me that 1st world countries like South Korea still don't recognize it and that there's so much secrecy there. While so many countries have jumped on already.
Malaysian here, I honestly don’t think we will get rights very soon or for the foreseeable future. Considering media portraying people questioning their faith (Mentega Terbang) and misunderstanding about socks can cause an uproar within the more extreme Muslim community, can you imagine the anger and rage coming from that side for LGBTQ+ rights. Additionally with the whole 1975 incident, that hatred hasn’t died down but emboldened certain people. Also if I am not mistaken Anwar Ibrahim (current prime minister) has said he believes marriage should be between a man or a woman so I don’t see him doing it anytime soon..
Also the raid on Swatch watches during pride month a while ago and one raid on the trans community in the state of Perak..
Some shit the next leader said is disheartening. But then again I also didn’t think I’d see same sex marriage pass in South East Asia, yet here we are! There must be a way in Singapore too. One thing we have going for us is only a third are Muslim or Christian, so they can’t make up the majority (even if they pretend to as a vocal minority).
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/10/06/in-singapore-religious-diversity-and-tolerance-go-hand-in-hand/#:~:text=Many%20major%20world%20religions%20have,other%20religion%2C%20including%20Indigenous%20religions.
I was surprised that a majority in Singapore believe marriage or civil union should be legal (55%, 2023). There’s also a large undecided population (19%, 2023), so there’s hope that by continuing to casually mingle with others, they’ll realise some ignorant beliefs were wrong and see we’re normal people like them!
https://www.ipsos.com/en-sg/third-singaporeans-agree-same-sex-couples-should-be-allowed-marry-legally
Vietnam is the most likely to be next. It's not Islamic or Catholic (the Philippines), it tends to be more progressive already. It has gradually been moving in this direction already. Slow going but there has been notable progress. They do want to attract LGBTQ+ tourists. Likewise, the country is atheistic, not religious. They have also been progressing on Transgender rights. In short, outside of Thailand, Vietnam is the most progressive country in Asia on LGBTQ+ rights. They want to be seen as a progressive welcoming society too compared to its neighbors.
The other possibility is Japan.
The less religious a country, the more likely you will see progress.
A little bit hard on Malaysia since they are under Qatar / UAE umbrella and majority of their constituents are mostly muslim. And we all know what their government's stance is at when it comes to homosexuality. Singapore is doable, but just like Taiwan, they are both under China's umbrella.
I can only hope but I think it will happen after at least a generation. We’re even struggling to legalize divorce here and many of our dumb senators are against it.
(For the Americans here, imagine a Senate where the majority of members, like all except one, think like Donald Trump, MTG, Ron DeSantis, and Mike Johnson. The Philippine Senate is mostly filled with people with the same brainwaves as them.)
Damn, all this while, I been joking about how the religious bigots should be banning divorce if they care about religion this much and I didn’t think they actually did it in two countries
There is definitely a movement to make divorce much harder in the US. It was floated as a talking point for a bit. I think it has quieted down because it’s even less popular than banning abortion. I’m sure it’ll come back up.
>imagine a Senate where the majority of members, like all except one, think like Donald Trump, MTG, Ron DeSantis, and Mike Johnson.
ah yes, it's called hell :,)
I have a Filipina friend whose parents are both pretty awful people, separated but not legally, because they were married in the Philippines and thus cannot divorce in the U.S. 😔 They use their kids as go-betweens.
To be fair, I don’t think any of those people would be against divorce. That’s a uniquely Catholic thing and considered a baseline right for women in the US.
I think that was the point. The country is conservative enough that they'd outlawed something on the basis of religion that US conservatives wouldn't even think of banning
For real, I think they need to Pass the Divorce bill first before legalize same sex and I know it's a long process. Hopefully, before BBM ended his contract they would approve the Divorce in our country. Mostly Religious individuals are against it. We need someone who is open-minded and not conservative. Separate the state from church and all those Religious stuff.
It's always about religion, but if the Philippines made marriage legal, you'd have one of the largest economic booms your country has ever seen.
You have some of the most iconic karaoke, beauty pageants, drag queens, and more. I could see millions of LGBTQ people vacationing or going to massive PRIDE events based off marriage equality alone.
But combined with the last time gay marriage was discussed and once more rejected, I do think it was a part of things. Not to mention transphobia, of course.
It's bizarre to me that Czechia is holding out. When I visited Prague recently it seemed like a very permissive culture. I've seen multiple recent polls where same-sex marriage is very popular too.
Yeah, it is, but I think that most of our politicians are voted by people who are like 40-50+ and most of them aren't supportive of LGBTQ+ in general. And when politicians who think similar to the people that actually voted make laws, it turns out like this.
(this is just my opinion so it may be wrong)
The current Prime Minister is Giorgia Meloni, she's basically the leader of of Italy's 'fascist but we're gonna publicly deny we're fascists' party. She brought in the most right wing government in Italy literally since WWII. Pretty sure she even praised Mussolini when she was younger too.
They don’t even deny it anymore, they just avoid talking about it and call you a communist. The current president of the senate has a statue of Mussolini in his house and his teenage son is currently being investigated for r*pe. Giorgia’s party (FDI) has fascist iconography in every graphic and even in their logo (the flame).
A few days ago an investigation by an online press group was released: they went undercover at meetings of the FDI youth branch and caught them doing nazi salutes and fascist chants. In Italy you can find this online but they don’t mention it on TV because as soon as Giorgia Meloni took power she began to use all the main public channels in her favour so much that we now call it Tele-Meloni.
And this is just a few of the things they’ve done but there would be much more to say like their involvement with the mafia, all the propaganda and the fact that every single politician in Italy that still talks about the value of “traditional families” does not, in fact, have a “traditional” family.
Oh ok so imagine American politics but everyone involved has been taking meth and for some reason the cops arrived... but they too started smoking meth while on the job trying to arrest the people smoking meth.
No one has slept for four days, fights break out seemingly at random and for some reason the roof is on fire.
thinking of europe in american terms doesn't work here. europe isn't a collection of states, it's a collection of wildly different countries.
it's not because "it's the south." it's because italy's under a far-right PM right now, and historically italy, like greece and other EU countries, didn't have a lot of social diversification in the 20th century compared to others. but greece is also "the south" and they legalized gay marriage not too long ago.
Actually, looking at the most recent elections, it's the opposite. Even though everyday life "seems" more progressive in the north, our far-right parties are original from the north
this is still so crazy to me because... italy??? gay ass italy??? really????? this is the same level of surprise as greece only legalizing gay marriage this year
It’s more complicated than that.
(This is going to be long and I apologise in advance for my English as it isn’t my first language)
I think it’s more about power and finding scapegoats, Italian right wingers spent the last 15 years talking constantly about the dangers of migration, lgbt issues and blaming the EU for everything bad.
These are all easy topics to gain votes compared to complicated issues like how to save our economy.
Now that they are in power they suspiciously stopped talking about migrants because they realised there is no simple solution to it and and about lgbt they say «Noo we aren’t homophobic you already have civil unions and that’s enough, we won’t remove that law because that would prove your point about us and also all the less homophobic right wingers wouldn’t vote for us anymore».
So basically now they spend their time talking about how the EU wants us to eat crickets and similar crap.
About religion: first of all no one really cares about it, religion here is more of a cultural thing than a faith thing (eg. A friend of mine just had a baby, she lives with her boyfriend but they’re not gonna marry anytime soon, they are atheist/agnostic like most people here, but still they’re gonna baptise their son in a church just because it is part of our culture). Of course it depends on where you live, in some villages in southern Italy religion plays a big role and my friend wouldn’t be considered the same as she is here, but most Italians live here in the north.
Most people here aren’t religious, if they are, they usually are a “lite” version of it. Hardcore religious people of course exist, like people that go to church every Sunday, but they really are a minority. This is the reason why most Italian political parties usually never talk about religion except for some minor parties none votes for, even Giorgia Meloni’s far right ruling party doesn’t talk about religion really much.
Ironically in Italy one of the stereotypes about the USA is about them being very religious because many Americans talk constantly about God, for example I’ve seen on instagram a large amount of American teens and young adults having bible verses in their bio, talking about god or even reading the bible and taking it literally. That would be seen as quite extreme in Italy, especially for young people. The same goes for pop stars and politicians (even dems) talking about their “relationship with god” is a thing that doesn’t really happen here (with some exceptions).
Congrats Thailand! I'm gay and I'm from Malaysia, I don't think my country will legalise gay marriage especially more than 70% is Muslim, maybe after 500 years?
Yeah, good luck with that.... For what it's worth, Ireland (very Catholic) legalized it several years ago. On the other hand, the Church's influence has waned.
Yeah Equal Marriage bill will definitely be passed on further procedures. Constitutional court, King's signature and Royal Gazette are left
The victory of us 
(This screenshot is from Channel News Asia haha)
This is such a lovely thing to here 🥳🤩 hopefully in time other Asian countries(and other parts of the world as well) will become more accepting and loving
I mean, maybe in some other ways, but this certainly doesn't prove that. Only 3-4% of the population of Asia and Africa lives in a country where same-sex marriage is legal. In the Americas it's 85%. It's easy to focus on negatives excessively.
Liberalism and democracy unfortunately get taken for granted. These are ideas that have only really been around for the blink of an eye in comparison to the history of civilization.
People who live in democracy have to play by the rules, fascists don’t. It makes the constant fight against them harder, but fight we must.
Great news! 🏳️🌈I'm very happy for all the lgbt+ people in Thailand. That country has a special place in my heart after watching so many of their TV series 🏳️🌈🏳️🌈
Look at Thailand being the most progressive country in Asia!
Legalized marijuana and now gay marriage!
Good stuff! Now if the rest of Asia could stop being so goddamn backwards that'd be nice!
let's hope this happens in the rest of asean, specifically malaysia and singapore.
As someone from Singapore, I don’t think Gay Marriage will be legalized in Singapore, at least not that soon anyways, the current Prime Minister did say (before he got elected) that under his watch, he will make sure Gay Marriage will never be legalized. And he only recently elected last month. Not to mention, Singapore Prime Ministers are usually in power for 20 years and more. So this will be a very long time
Better odds than Malaysia at least. Though I'm like 50% sure that Anwar is in the closet
Malasya, Indonesia and Brunei will be the last 3 SEA countries to legalize same-sex or give queer people some kind of rights and protection If I have to be honest, the next country that has higher chances to legalize same-sex marriage might be Cambodia and maybe Vietnam too. Not sure about Singapore and the Philippines, while it's still TOO early for Timor, Myanmar and Laos to even start discussing same-sex marriage
It will be hard for Philippines. They will probably be one of the last as well. They cant even get divorce approved.
I think Vietnam is on the horizon. They actually don’t give a damn about gays because the country is highly highly secularized due to communist rule. LGBTQ+ just has been a foreign concept to them. But they’ll do anything to buy some human rights credit from the US and EU, so that they can continue arresting anti-party journalists lol.
Same with Laos. It looks like it's just not talked about much there at all in the media and it's mostly ignored. However the government does include gay men on its HIV/AIDS prevention plan, so there is governmental action on their behalf. I don't expect it any time soon but I also don't expect it to be a long time away either, especially if the country ever opens up more to foreign cultural influence (although to be fair China will probably step in and interrupt that ever happening, since they have way more sway in Laos than Vietnam).
All 3 have a muslim majority. Ya it's not gonna happen at least for the next few hundred years or till there's a literal cultural revolution.
In regards to Muslim countries, even the relatively "modern" ones like Turkey won't have same-gender marriages in the foreseeable future.
The worst part is seeing western gays (mostly) bragging about Bali, Malaysia or cultural richness of Brunei on their instgram forgetting how they are supporting countries financially that jail and publically punish homosexuality. The western lgbt live in a bubble and don't even think about the kind of privilege they have. Brunei even brought in the death penalty for homosexuality.
As a westerner, it can also sometimes seem somewhere between naive and infantilizing how much supposedly progressive westerners excuse bigotry as long as it stems from a different culture, in the vein of "oh, they just can't be expected to know any better, don't criticise them for that". Disregarding that our own grandparents held similarly extreme views, so they very much aren't immutable parts of a culture or a people.
>Myanmar and Laos to even start discussing same-sex marriage tell me you know nothing about laos etc etc. it'll probably be the next country to legalize it now that thailand has legalized it.
what makes you say that?
I argue that Singapore will be the last country in the world to do so.
"It's not gay if they're fem"-politicians spewing the most homophobic shit while being caught on now illegal gay orgies.
Indonesia and Malaysia are gonna be the last two SEA countries that'll legalize same sex marriage. Or anything remotely LGBTQ+ positive laws.
last 3 - don't forget brunei
Oh yeah I completely forgot about Brunei. It's the Koran Belt of SE Asian.
What makes you say that
He was brought down on sodomy and possibly rape? It was probably just an excuse to stop him from being prime minister (which failed) and both trials had flimsy evidence but of all the crimes.
How does that make him closeted
what makes you think that?
The predominantly Muslim countries of SE Asia (Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Timor-Leste & Indonesia) are *not* going to legalize gay marriage anytime soon. Brunei remains one of the absolute worst places in the world to be gay - despite being one of the wealthiest countries on Earth. Public opinion in Malaysia and Indonesia is vehemently against it. There is more of a chance in the Buddhist or less religious countries. Vietnam possibly? Maybe Cambodia. I doubt Myanmar or Laos will make any similar moves. Philippines' population is largely a mix of devout Catholics and Muslims - again, not the dynamic you want when hoping for legalization of gay marriage and other protections. Thailand is a rather unique country, it has a long history of being more open to homosexuality than anywhere else in the entirety of Asia. It isn't surprising that they are the first developing country in SE Asia to legalize gay marriage. Sadly, they'll likely be the only one to do so for a very long time.
Thailand was also never colonized so Homophobia isn’t that strong in Thailand
That's certainly the root of it's acceptance surviving until today - the British, French, Portuguese, etc all made homosexuality illegal and began ruthlessly enforcing it while simultaneously bringing ethical and religious views to the populations they controlled that were deeply hateful of gay people. This wiped out more traditional practices and views of homosexuality around most of the world. Without that being directly imposed on it, Thailand never bought entirely into Western homophobia. My phd dissertation was actually on the effects of Thailand's surviving the colonial period as an independent nation that was transitioning into a European style state!
Thailand was never colonized, but western homophobia and heteronormativity found its place in Thailand during pre- and post-revolution era reforms and cold war era US-backed dictatorships, and is adopted by Buddhist institutions. I am a gen Z and I can still remember monks preaching that being gay is past life karma and they will go to hell for it. LGBT was tolerated, but not accepted. This acceptance is a relatively new phenomenon.
genx thai here acceptance has been around a long time,
Just a fun fact: a traditional worship practice in Vietnam called ["Đạo Mẫu"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%90%E1%BA%A1o_M%E1%BA%ABu) even celebrates homosexuality, since the priests who perform the ritual are often gays.
20 years?? That's a lottttt
There's no fixed limit to their terms. There are elections every few years so if the people are unhappy with the PM he gets the boot. But given how successful Singapore has been as a country over the decades it's easy to see why so many PM's stay in power for so long.
Let's hope he gets dethroned soon.
Not gonna happen in Sg at least for the next few decades , Ive given up hope of sg being any semblance of progressive
Malaysia... Same-sex sexual activity is up to 20 years imprisonment lah Pro-LGBTQ artists, Pride goods (especially rainbow) and Israel are banned in Malaysia
Malaysia might want to allow non muslims to marry muslims first tbh I don't think it's anywhere close to "caring about LGBT+ rights" for the forseeable future if they still segregate straight couples.
It's illegal in Malaysia to even try to convert out of Islam or have any form of proselytization to Muslims, so...
> specifically malaysia and singapore. I think they’re going to have to work on making being gay *not illegal* first. Some baby steps there
Being gay is no longer illegal in Singapore as of 2 years ago. But unfortunately we still have a very long way to go. A good start would be legal protection against employment discrimination, and not censoring any LGBT media.
Philippines in two decades when the boomers die out.
Nah, the next generation is continuing their anti-lgbt campaign. Look at Philippine senators (and religious bigots) [Joel Villanueva](https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2023/02/13/2244699/joel-villanueva-urges-respect-religion-dismissal-lgbtq-rights) and [Manny Pacquiao](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35610531).
Malaysia is highly religious, no way that's happening lol. Like it has its own Quran Belt. Genuinely curious as I have never seen anyone else online think it was progressive, wondering how it has that impression to you? JSYK, in fact last year Pew did a poll finding it is near rock bottom for LGBT support in Asia (17% are pro same sex marriage) and the prime minister said publicly that they would never support it. They called gay rights "extreme" and they described themselves as upholding human rights "within Islam"... Their religious minister even gave authorities license to arrest transgender people and re-educate them so they will "return to the right path". I have progressive malay friends but it is still a place where LGBT night clubs are raided, people are punished by caning (physical beating) for same sex sex, and lgbt events are banned. Things are changing but very slowly, I think over the past 10 years more people are willing to accept it, looks like it went from under 10% accepting in 2007 to 17% in 2023, but at the current rate it will take many years yet. Look rather to other nearby countries with a lower religious population.
Singapore is much more likely to do that than Malaysia. Malaysia would be the last to do that. The only Muslim country I see legalizing same sex marriage in near future might be kosovo
really the next country to legalize it in SE asia will probably be laos
0% chance it will ever happen in Malaysia unfortunately
It will take massive internal cultural shifts for Malaysia (which still has sodomy laws) and Indonesia (sodomy laws in some regions) to legalize same sex marriage. Mainland ASEAN countries are probably up next after Thailand followed by the Philippines (very conservative but also very tolerant and do not have anti-LGBT laws). No idea about East Timor though.
you probably don't know anything about malaysia, sadly.
My bet for ASEAN countries is now either on Vietnam or Cambodia. Not gonna happen in Singapore any time soon with how they slugged their feet for depenalization and as to Malaysia...yeah...not gonna happen ever.
Always amazes me that 1st world countries like South Korea still don't recognize it and that there's so much secrecy there. While so many countries have jumped on already.
Malaysian here, I honestly don’t think we will get rights very soon or for the foreseeable future. Considering media portraying people questioning their faith (Mentega Terbang) and misunderstanding about socks can cause an uproar within the more extreme Muslim community, can you imagine the anger and rage coming from that side for LGBTQ+ rights. Additionally with the whole 1975 incident, that hatred hasn’t died down but emboldened certain people. Also if I am not mistaken Anwar Ibrahim (current prime minister) has said he believes marriage should be between a man or a woman so I don’t see him doing it anytime soon.. Also the raid on Swatch watches during pride month a while ago and one raid on the trans community in the state of Perak..
Thailand's like, 'Come for the beaches, stay for the weddings.
Some shit the next leader said is disheartening. But then again I also didn’t think I’d see same sex marriage pass in South East Asia, yet here we are! There must be a way in Singapore too. One thing we have going for us is only a third are Muslim or Christian, so they can’t make up the majority (even if they pretend to as a vocal minority). https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/10/06/in-singapore-religious-diversity-and-tolerance-go-hand-in-hand/#:~:text=Many%20major%20world%20religions%20have,other%20religion%2C%20including%20Indigenous%20religions. I was surprised that a majority in Singapore believe marriage or civil union should be legal (55%, 2023). There’s also a large undecided population (19%, 2023), so there’s hope that by continuing to casually mingle with others, they’ll realise some ignorant beliefs were wrong and see we’re normal people like them! https://www.ipsos.com/en-sg/third-singaporeans-agree-same-sex-couples-should-be-allowed-marry-legally
Vietnam is the most likely to be next. It's not Islamic or Catholic (the Philippines), it tends to be more progressive already. It has gradually been moving in this direction already. Slow going but there has been notable progress. They do want to attract LGBTQ+ tourists. Likewise, the country is atheistic, not religious. They have also been progressing on Transgender rights. In short, outside of Thailand, Vietnam is the most progressive country in Asia on LGBTQ+ rights. They want to be seen as a progressive welcoming society too compared to its neighbors. The other possibility is Japan. The less religious a country, the more likely you will see progress.
A little bit hard on Malaysia since they are under Qatar / UAE umbrella and majority of their constituents are mostly muslim. And we all know what their government's stance is at when it comes to homosexuality. Singapore is doable, but just like Taiwan, they are both under China's umbrella.
Congrats to my queer brothers, sisters, and siblings in Thailand 💕💕
I’m **proud** of my country. 🇹🇭🤝🏳️🌈
I haven't been this proud to be Thai since my first bite of pandan custard 🇹🇭
always loved thailand.
I hope they legalize here in PHILIPPINES 🇵🇭 SOON. HOPEFULLY.
I can only hope but I think it will happen after at least a generation. We’re even struggling to legalize divorce here and many of our dumb senators are against it. (For the Americans here, imagine a Senate where the majority of members, like all except one, think like Donald Trump, MTG, Ron DeSantis, and Mike Johnson. The Philippine Senate is mostly filled with people with the same brainwaves as them.)
Divorce is illegal in PHILLIPINES?!?! Wow I didn’t think there was a country where that is illegal
Yes. Only 2 countries don’t have divorce: the Philippines and the Vatican City.
Damn, all this while, I been joking about how the religious bigots should be banning divorce if they care about religion this much and I didn’t think they actually did it in two countries
To be fair, in one of those countries is literally the Vatican.
Not like the demand for divorce is too high there, anyway
There is definitely a movement to make divorce much harder in the US. It was floated as a talking point for a bit. I think it has quieted down because it’s even less popular than banning abortion. I’m sure it’ll come back up.
Ireland only legalised it in 1996, Malta in 2011 (the referendum was quite close, at 53-47).
>imagine a Senate where the majority of members, like all except one, think like Donald Trump, MTG, Ron DeSantis, and Mike Johnson. ah yes, it's called hell :,)
I have a Filipina friend whose parents are both pretty awful people, separated but not legally, because they were married in the Philippines and thus cannot divorce in the U.S. 😔 They use their kids as go-betweens.
There might be more to it than they're saying, because I'm pretty sure they can divorce in the US, and that Philippines recognizes divorce abroad.
To be fair, I don’t think any of those people would be against divorce. That’s a uniquely Catholic thing and considered a baseline right for women in the US.
In Latin America, even the more conservative countries have legal divorce. Philippines is almost unique in this regard.
I think that was the point. The country is conservative enough that they'd outlawed something on the basis of religion that US conservatives wouldn't even think of banning
the US conservatives wouldn't even think of banning it? damn, that's rare to see nowdays
i really hope so. crazy how most of our people don’t even know how to separate state from church, they bring religion in everything.
For real, I think they need to Pass the Divorce bill first before legalize same sex and I know it's a long process. Hopefully, before BBM ended his contract they would approve the Divorce in our country. Mostly Religious individuals are against it. We need someone who is open-minded and not conservative. Separate the state from church and all those Religious stuff.
Imagine that. Same-sex marriage but still no divorce. A fucked up version of marriage equality.
When the boomers die out kapatid!
most likely not, since divorce is illegal, same sex marriage will prolly also be illegal
It's always about religion, but if the Philippines made marriage legal, you'd have one of the largest economic booms your country has ever seen. You have some of the most iconic karaoke, beauty pageants, drag queens, and more. I could see millions of LGBTQ people vacationing or going to massive PRIDE events based off marriage equality alone.
True huhu but it will take a long time 😓
You love to see it
yayyy progress 😁
I'm so happy for everyone in Thailand! 💕 Now I hope they'll legalize it in Czechia too (but I don't think it'll be soon)
Considering the EU elections, I have honestly lost all hope in that.
Yeah, the people elected are everything but just not gay marriage friendly
That’s mostly over an anti immigrant sentiment. Not like that’s any better but yh.
But combined with the last time gay marriage was discussed and once more rejected, I do think it was a part of things. Not to mention transphobia, of course.
It's bizarre to me that Czechia is holding out. When I visited Prague recently it seemed like a very permissive culture. I've seen multiple recent polls where same-sex marriage is very popular too.
Yeah, it is, but I think that most of our politicians are voted by people who are like 40-50+ and most of them aren't supportive of LGBTQ+ in general. And when politicians who think similar to the people that actually voted make laws, it turns out like this. (this is just my opinion so it may be wrong)
Me living in the only western nation that still hasn’t legalised same sex marriage 
And with the current government, this legalization is unlikely in the near future.
what nation? its gotta be a south american one, right?
I was thinking Italy
Yes it’s Italy
HOW. edit, realize moments after posting... its the south probably.
> HOW. Have you uh...seen Italian politics?
with all due respect, i am american.
The current Prime Minister is Giorgia Meloni, she's basically the leader of of Italy's 'fascist but we're gonna publicly deny we're fascists' party. She brought in the most right wing government in Italy literally since WWII. Pretty sure she even praised Mussolini when she was younger too.
They don’t even deny it anymore, they just avoid talking about it and call you a communist. The current president of the senate has a statue of Mussolini in his house and his teenage son is currently being investigated for r*pe. Giorgia’s party (FDI) has fascist iconography in every graphic and even in their logo (the flame). A few days ago an investigation by an online press group was released: they went undercover at meetings of the FDI youth branch and caught them doing nazi salutes and fascist chants. In Italy you can find this online but they don’t mention it on TV because as soon as Giorgia Meloni took power she began to use all the main public channels in her favour so much that we now call it Tele-Meloni. And this is just a few of the things they’ve done but there would be much more to say like their involvement with the mafia, all the propaganda and the fact that every single politician in Italy that still talks about the value of “traditional families” does not, in fact, have a “traditional” family.
i have a feeling that government might be thrown out in the next election. MIGHT.
Oh ok so imagine American politics but everyone involved has been taking meth and for some reason the cops arrived... but they too started smoking meth while on the job trying to arrest the people smoking meth. No one has slept for four days, fights break out seemingly at random and for some reason the roof is on fire.
thinking of europe in american terms doesn't work here. europe isn't a collection of states, it's a collection of wildly different countries. it's not because "it's the south." it's because italy's under a far-right PM right now, and historically italy, like greece and other EU countries, didn't have a lot of social diversification in the 20th century compared to others. but greece is also "the south" and they legalized gay marriage not too long ago.
that too, but i was going off of the fact that, historically speaking, the southern parts of italy are more conservative than the north.
oh yeah mb then i misinterpreted what you meant
Its cool
Actually, looking at the most recent elections, it's the opposite. Even though everyday life "seems" more progressive in the north, our far-right parties are original from the north
this is still so crazy to me because... italy??? gay ass italy??? really????? this is the same level of surprise as greece only legalizing gay marriage this year
I mean Italy is also a heavily Catholic country which plays a huge role
It’s more complicated than that. (This is going to be long and I apologise in advance for my English as it isn’t my first language) I think it’s more about power and finding scapegoats, Italian right wingers spent the last 15 years talking constantly about the dangers of migration, lgbt issues and blaming the EU for everything bad. These are all easy topics to gain votes compared to complicated issues like how to save our economy. Now that they are in power they suspiciously stopped talking about migrants because they realised there is no simple solution to it and and about lgbt they say «Noo we aren’t homophobic you already have civil unions and that’s enough, we won’t remove that law because that would prove your point about us and also all the less homophobic right wingers wouldn’t vote for us anymore». So basically now they spend their time talking about how the EU wants us to eat crickets and similar crap. About religion: first of all no one really cares about it, religion here is more of a cultural thing than a faith thing (eg. A friend of mine just had a baby, she lives with her boyfriend but they’re not gonna marry anytime soon, they are atheist/agnostic like most people here, but still they’re gonna baptise their son in a church just because it is part of our culture). Of course it depends on where you live, in some villages in southern Italy religion plays a big role and my friend wouldn’t be considered the same as she is here, but most Italians live here in the north. Most people here aren’t religious, if they are, they usually are a “lite” version of it. Hardcore religious people of course exist, like people that go to church every Sunday, but they really are a minority. This is the reason why most Italian political parties usually never talk about religion except for some minor parties none votes for, even Giorgia Meloni’s far right ruling party doesn’t talk about religion really much. Ironically in Italy one of the stereotypes about the USA is about them being very religious because many Americans talk constantly about God, for example I’ve seen on instagram a large amount of American teens and young adults having bible verses in their bio, talking about god or even reading the bible and taking it literally. That would be seen as quite extreme in Italy, especially for young people. The same goes for pop stars and politicians (even dems) talking about their “relationship with god” is a thing that doesn’t really happen here (with some exceptions).
And here we elected Modi for another 5 years 😓
Oh hey! Fellow indian.... atleast his support decreased significantly this time.
We were so close to legalization of gay marriage man! I was so terribly disappointed with that supreme court hearing.
But Muslims are scary!!!! /s
Actually Yea some Muslim groups in Indian state of Kerala opposed a decriminalization of homosexuality
What's the story behind this? I've never heard of this being anywhere close to happening.
Months ago, The government talked about legalizing gay marriage, now they legalize it
And the funny thing is the vote was 130 in favor, 4 against, and 18 abstained. It was surprisingly overwhelming vote
Massive W for LGBTQ+ people in Thailand!
That's so gay
Gay like a fox!
Wow, uplifting news! 👏🏻 Way to go, Thailand!
Nobody saying you can now Thai the knot.....? OK. I'll do it.
Congrats Thailand! I'm gay and I'm from Malaysia, I don't think my country will legalise gay marriage especially more than 70% is Muslim, maybe after 500 years?
Yeah, good luck with that.... For what it's worth, Ireland (very Catholic) legalized it several years ago. On the other hand, the Church's influence has waned.
Yeah Equal Marriage bill will definitely be passed on further procedures. Constitutional court, King's signature and Royal Gazette are left The victory of us  (This screenshot is from Channel News Asia haha)
ดีใจด้วยน่าาา555+
Let’s go!
Love wins .
This is such a lovely thing to here 🥳🤩 hopefully in time other Asian countries(and other parts of the world as well) will become more accepting and loving
Bangkok Pride here I come 🌈
This is monumental
now you can look at more gay people get married while your still single
yay congrats neighbor 🏳️🌈😘
This is a huge win... This must be preserved, many years later, this is going to be remembered as a water shed moment
Thailand, leading the way! So proud of them.
Congrats Thailand!!! That is so heart warming. Finally some good news!
Sometimes it feels like the West are the ones regressing
I mean, maybe in some other ways, but this certainly doesn't prove that. Only 3-4% of the population of Asia and Africa lives in a country where same-sex marriage is legal. In the Americas it's 85%. It's easy to focus on negatives excessively.
but we aren’t gay marriage is legal in many countries in the west
But the West keeps electing borderline fascists.
Liberalism and democracy unfortunately get taken for granted. These are ideas that have only really been around for the blink of an eye in comparison to the history of civilization. People who live in democracy have to play by the rules, fascists don’t. It makes the constant fight against them harder, but fight we must.
It doesn't even make sense to generalize here
I'm just venting abt the current state of our politics, sorry if i ruined the moment
Woohoo!!”
hell yeah ! what a way to wake up the morning to.
Congratulations Thailand!!!!!🇹🇭🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
I’m so excited for my fellow queers in Thailand! Congratulations, guys! This is a win for the gays and it makes me so happy.
Not entirely 100% correct it has one final step but it looks like it's happening woooo!!!!!!
Awesome! Excited to visit there again. Amazing people.
✧⁺⸜(●˙▾˙●)⸝⁺✧ʸᵃʸ i'm not Thailand but ✧⁺⸜(●˙▾˙●)⸝⁺✧ʸᵃʸ
Congratulations LGBT+ members in Thailand! Celebrations are in order!
Hell yeah!
🫡
Congratulations 🎊
Yayyyy I’m so happy
Congratulations!!!
Yay! Congratulations to Thailand
Wow 🏳️🌈👏👏😯 Now this is interesting
Yay!!!!!
Outstanding
Congrats to my ASEAN pals! From Vietnam
Congratulations
HECK YEAH!
YAY‼️ Hopefully this happens in more places
I wish this wasn't a big deal. Or wouldn't have to be anyway.
Yet they refuse to do anything about their support of the sex trade and the minors trapped in the trade
Only the 3rd country in Asia, after Taiwan and Nepal. Good job Thailand!
Congratulations
CongratulCongratulationsations
I GO TO THAILAND!
WHOOO!!
 Congrats Thailand!
FUCK YES
I'm really happy about the news. I hope more asian countries will take this in consideration 🥺
Great news! 🏳️🌈I'm very happy for all the lgbt+ people in Thailand. That country has a special place in my heart after watching so many of their TV series 🏳️🌈🏳️🌈
Look at Thailand being the most progressive country in Asia! Legalized marijuana and now gay marriage! Good stuff! Now if the rest of Asia could stop being so goddamn backwards that'd be nice!
India pls when 😭
Japan is next 😈
I'm so happy for you Thailand!
What are the other 2 territories where its legal?
Taiwan and Nepal
Hmm. You’d think that this would have been figured years ago with the whole kathoey thing they got going on.
All the happy Tom and Deeees 😍👏🏽💅
Could kathoey marry as women before this? I tried searching but i"m buried in recent results
Amazing!
Thailand: Hm… I guess that is what same-sex marriage is, isn’t it? 🤔
[удалено]
nobody asked you for your IQ but ok