Same-sex marriage was on a roll in Asia. Not anymore

Hong Kong CNN —

Rainbow flags rippled in the wind as gay and lesbian couples walked hand in hand down a makeshift aisle in Bangkok’s busy Siam shopping district.

Thailand’s Senate had just passed a marriage equality bill, and the local LGBTQ+ community was in the mood to celebrate.

While the ceremonies were symbolic enactments of same-sex weddings, the real thing could be just around the corner.

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

“Now I can freely say that I am gay,” said Pokpong, who can’t wait to marry his partner Watit Benjamonkolchai.

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

But the recent flurry of progress for marriage equality in Asia could stop there, with no other government in the region looking likely to follow suit anytime soon.

“The truth is not a lot of governments are moving as proactively as the one in Thailand,” Suen Yiu-tung, associate professor of gender studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, told CNN.

The winning formula

More than 30 jurisdictions worldwide now recognize 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 mostly 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