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Thai move to legalize same-sex unions faces opposition

Some members of Thailand's LGBTQ community too oppose the move saying it does not go far enough to ensure their rights
Thai move to legalize same-sex unions faces opposition

Image taken from the Facebook page of global LGBT community (Facebook

 

Published: July 16, 2020 05:02 AM GMT
Updated: July 16, 2020 05:03 AM GMT

Conservative Muslim groups in Thailand have opposed a new bill that aims to allow same-sex couples to register their unions officially and adopt children.

The newly drafted Marriage Equality Bill is seen as a watershed for members of Thailand's LGBTQ community. If passed by parliament, Thailand will become the first country in Southeast Asia to legalize same-sex unions.

"We fully oppose the Civil Partnership Bill," a group called Muslims for Peace wrote in a social media post on its Facebook page, calling on local Muslims to do likewise.

"We believe that it will cause inevitable damage to society," it added. "It will also cause national unrest [because newly granted privileges to LGBTQ people] will deepen inequality and injustice."

The post was later deleted in response to criticisms, but several Thai Muslims have spoken out against same-sex marriages, arguing that such unions violated Islam's tenets.

Although many of Thailand's 3 million Muslims, in a 69 million country, tend to be socially liberal, especially in Bangkok, a more conservative form of Islam dominates around the countryside.

In Thailand's three southernmost Muslim-majority provinces, where a separatist insurgency has claimed thousands of lives over the years, gays, lesbians and transgender people aren't at liberty to live openly, according to members of the local LGBTQ community.

"My mother accepts me the way I am, but my father has disowned me," said a transwoman who lives in Bangkok but comes from a prominent family in the Muslim-majority province of Narathiwat in southern Thailand, bordering Malaysia.

"In Bangkok, I can dress any way I want, but at home, I can't dress up as a woman because people might abuse me verbally or even attack me physically," she told a UCA News reporter.

Even in some more tolerant Muslim communities elsewhere in Thailand, many locals have adopted a live-and-let-live attitude towards members of the LGBTQ community yet they draw the line at marriage, according to some local Muslims.

"If there's a law that goes against Islamic teachings, we will oppose it," the Thai Muslim Student Association told a local online publication. "However, we will respect the law and will not do anything to violate or overturn it," the group added.

"Although the same-sex marriage bill contradicts with our faith, we respect different opinions and faiths since each party has different standards of morality," it said.

Ironically, the proposed bill has also drawn opposition from some members of Thailand's LGBTQ community who argue that it does not go far enough in guaranteeing equal rights.

Tanwarin Sukkhapisit, a transgender woman and a parliament member for an opposition party, has slammed the government's bill as divisive and unjust because it retains some legal distinctions between same-sex couples and male-female ones.

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