Ouanapa Pankun, a 32-year-old veterinarian, had been together with Wongkot Tungchitwatthanakul, the owner of a chicken farm, also 32, for a year before the two decided to tie the knot. The couple now has one daughter together. Both Ouanapa and Wongkot are female.
"We did get married, but that was never a certainty. Would my parents love her as I do? I wanted Ouanapa to bear a grandchild for them so everyone would feel that she really is a part of the family," said Wongkot.
Living in Nakhon Sawan, the happy couple raises their seven-month-old girl Wongprachun surrounded by love and support from family and friends. Wongprachun was born through IVF using Ouanapa's eggs and donated semen from Wongkot's brother. Ouanapa carried and gave birth to the baby.
"I guess we are abnormal to others who consider themselves normal," admitted Ouanapa. "But everyone in both our families is really happy to have Wongprachun. Gender is never an issue in our house."
"If my daughter ever asks me why her friends have a male dad and a female mum, I will tell her that her papa [Wongkot] and I really gave birth to her out of our love. We really want to have her in our life. We only want the best for her."
Ouanapa and Wongkot show that surrogacy and fertility treatments within same sex couples are not always littered with drama, money and tears. After a string of high-profile and controversial cases in the past few months, Thailand has seemingly also become the land of surrogates, due to the nation's lack of proper laws and regulations. Many surrogacy cases bear signs of commercialisation, with agencies and middlemen involved. Concerns have also been raised that surrogacy is slowly turning into a human trafficking-type predicament.
At the base of surrogacy is the life of an innocent child. Fearing for the rights of children who are born through reproductive medical technology, the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security has put out a draft of its surrogacy bill in an attempt to regulate and prevent commercial surrogacy and human trafficking — all with children's rights at the focal point. The draft is currently awaiting approval by the National Council for Peace and Order.
The proposed bill has sparked recent debate among the LGBT community and feminists due to a point stating that surrogacy would only be allowed for lawfully wedded straight couples. Another point to note is a surrogate can only be a woman who has previously borne a child.
From these two points alone, LGBT couples, straight couples who are not married and single women who wish to have children will not be able to legally utilise fertility treatments such as in vitro fertilisation and artificial insemination.
It boils down to a question of morality and rights violations, especially toward the LGBT community, as they cannot be legally marry in Thailand.
The Yogyakarta Principles on the Application of International Human Rights Law in relation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity are intended to address the abuse of LGBT human rights. Principle 24, titled "The Right to Found a Family", states that: "Everyone has the right to found a family, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. Families exist in diverse forms. No family may be subjected to discrimination on the basis of the sexual orientation or gender identity of any of its members."
If the current draft of the surrogacy bill is passed, it would inadvertently violate the Yogyakarta Principles, which were signed and agreed upon by human rights experts around the world.
The proposed bill would also conflict with the Civil Partnership Bill, which is being pushed by the Foundation for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (Sogi) Rights and Justice, as well as LGBT networks in Thailand.
Chantalak Raksayu, the public communications officer from the Foundation, explained that the two bills would clash when it boils down to definitions of gender and family.
"In the proposed surrogacy bill, they use the words 'lawfully wedded husband and wife'. It is a really big term that excludes everyone else who also wishes to have children. However, in the Civil Partnership Bill, we don't use those terms. Instead, we use the term 'partner and/or individual'. This is so we can cover everyone regardless of their gender."
The Civil Partnership Bill is currently resting with the Law Reform Commission of Thailand. It is unsure as to when it will see any progress. The Foundation is planning to release a draft of the bill to the public next month.
Chantalak said she does not believe the surrogacy bill would be able to solve current issues. She rather speculated that, though illegal, surrogacy would still continue to happen in secrecy.
The bill may be a borderline violation of human rights, but what seems to hurt the LGBT community the most is the public's attitude. Ever since the case of a Thai woman who unknowingly carried a child for a gay couple broke, there have been some that have spoken up, stating that it would violate a child's rights to be born into a non-heterosexual family, that those children might "turn" homosexual through examples and imitation.
That logic, however, disregards the fact that gender identity and family background does not always correlate, since homosexuals also come from families and societies dominated by heterosexuals.
"For LGBT couples, if they want to have children, it really requires higher determination compared to straight couples," said Chantalak. "A long process is involved, and it also costs a lot. The couple has to be really ready and well prepared for the arrival of a child. It's not just about one night's pleasure or forgetting to take pills or use condoms and then giving birth to a baby that the couple may not be able to take good care of.
"Being born into LGBT families does not cause children to be homosexual. It would rather make the child have a better understanding and attitude towards gender diversity."
The Foundation and its allies are currently holding their breaths to see if the bill would go into effect. Should it become law, many people — LGBT, straight, unmarried and single — would be stripped of their hopes of having children.
Assoc Prof Somchai Preechasilpakul from Chiang Mai University's Faculty of Law said that
law, as a profession, can be quite conservative at times. It still holds to the definition of a family as a unit that includes father, a mother and their children.
"The law is being pushed by a group of people who still believe in those ancient concepts. For them, this is how families should be. Hence, this is how the law should be," he said.
"To see this new law become fruitful, society has to have a better understanding on gender diversity without being tied down to decrepit beliefs. This draft of the surrogacy bill shows how people understand the word 'family' within the Thai context and setting. It is still exclusively reserved for heterosexual couples."
As of now, it is unclear as to whether the bill will be revised before getting the NCPO's stamp of approval. Both feminists and the LGBT community have been organising discussion panels to raise people's awareness on the issue. They only wish their hopeful pleas will eventually reach the government and influence the final outcome, which will then show that their basic and equal rights are not being ignored.
Wongkot Tungchitwatthanakul, left, and Ouanapa Pankun with their daughter, Wongprachun.
