They also allowed the opinions of a Thai anti-gay psychologist to balance the view. The discussions were covered by the mainstream newspapers in Thailand. This is a very prominent Thai university. She was also the chair at the time of the American Psychological Association’s Committee on Women in Psychology and was invited to give a talk at Thammasat University. In June 1995 they invited Bianca Murphy a professor of psychology from Wheaton College. The first challenge for them was the Thai Ministry of Health and getting them to remove homosexuality from the government’s list as a mental illness. With the launch of the first Asian Lesbian Network in 1990, they gained international attention. This becomes very important later as you will see, as the issues of LGBT and women’s rights become intertwined. They covered mainly lesbian issues in the women’s movement in Thailand. The organization was started by a small group of lesbian feminist activists led by Anjana Suvarnananda and Chanthalak Raksayu. The LGBT rights organization in Thailand called Anjaree from its inception in 1986 has long campaigned for LGBT rights in the country. The road to LGBTQ rights in Thailand is explained below in a chronological order. Above all this has been a bone of contention when it comes to issues such as death or retirement where one partner dies and cannot access the same rights as a heterosexual couple as they are not legally married. Sexual liberation is a bit of an illusion as it would appear that it ends at the Soi’s and does not go any further.Ĭurrently, same-sex couples do not enjoy the same rights as heterosexual couples. This is mainly as Thai society is still very conservative. The older Thai members of society, as well as religious organizations and members of parliament, have however not allowed meaningful change to occur. You will know that Thai society has long been accepting of the LGBTQ+ community. The current issuesįor those who have visited Thailand or lived here. This is the Thailand LGBTQ rights battle. It is an important issue as it has been estimated that up to 10% of Thailand’s broader community is considered to fall under the LGBT+ banner. We have covered this topic before on here. Have long lobbied the Thai government to enact laws that will allow them to have the same rights as straight couples.

Kathoey of thailand