Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thai Civil Unions for same-sex partners here in Thailand. We have been discussing this, kind of keeping an eye on this one; this is a pretty major piece of legal news here in Thailand. It appears at least for now, full same-sex marriage is not on the books here in Thailand. It doesn't look likely to be particularly soon but it does appear that same-sex Civil unions may likely be legalized at least in the foreseeable future. Now the question has been "Well will that mean it has got to be between a Thai and a foreign national, or two Thais? How is this set up?" The consensus up to now has seemed to be, well at least one of the parties had to be Thai but now it appears that may be changing. 

A recent article from Thai PBS World, that is thaipbsworld.com, the article is titled: House panel allows same-sex foreign couples to register Civil partnership in Thailand. Quoting directly: "The House Committee vetting the Civil partnership Bill decided today Wednesday to amend the bill to make it possible for same-sex couples who are both foreigners to register their partnership in Thailand instead of one of them having to be a Thai national." Quoting further: "Spokesperson for the house scrutiny panel, Thanikarn Pornpongsarote, said that the Committee decided to scrap the entire Section 8 of the Bill which stipulates that one of the same-sex couples (I think they meant one of the same-sex partners) one of the same-sex couples who are eligible to register their partnership here must be a Thai national." Quoting further: "The deletion of the clause means that the door is open for same-sex couples who are both non-Thais to register their union, which can help boost tourism, said Thanikarn." Yeah it will be interesting.

Now bear in mind, a couple of things here. Civil union as we have discussed in videos in the past regarding same sex Visas to the United States, Civil Unions are not recognized as the same thing as a full marriage for purposes of US Immigration Law; we have discussed that at length. The United States, the US Supreme Court specifically did finally recognize the right to same-sex marriage in the United States but for purposes of Immigration it has got to be a marriage, you are talking about getting married. A civil union doesn't quite get you there. Now it will be interesting to see exactly how this plays out. To be clear, none of this is legalized yet so none of this has gone through any kind of Bill in Parliament; it hasn't been read through and it hasn't been processed through any sort of due process like the Cabinet or going through the publication in the Royal Gazette. We haven't seen any of that happen as of the time of this video. That said, what we are looking at is a situation where it is seeming increasingly likely that we are going to see same sex Civil Unions become legalized here in Thailand probably sooner rather than later and it's interesting that they have left the door open now for same-sex couples that are not necessarily both of Thai nationality, either or both of Thai nationality to come to Thailand and register their civil union. I suspect this will have significant ramifications especially in the region as I don't think a lot of the countries in Southeast Asia are going to very quickly follow in Thailand's footsteps so that may turn Thailand into a place where a lot of LGBT couples, a lot of travellers will come for tourism purposes because they can register their Civil Union here which has legal ramifications. It may create some legal rights. One of the big ones with respect to Civil Unions that I have seen over the years when I have dealt with a lot of LGBT folks who are together in a relationship, it has a lot to do with estate planning. It's a big one. Having a Civil Union really kind of creates a lot of shorthand for future Courts and Authorities when dealing with things like medical coverage as well as a visitation under medical coverage as well as estate planning. It is going to have substantial ramifications in that context. And it is why, while I do understand the frustration of folks in the LGBT community who are not particularly happy about not gaining full marriage recognition yet, I think it probably will come but a Civil Union is not something insignificant. It really has tremendous legal ramifications and it provides a great many benefits to the folks who choose to undertake them.