NAKHON SAWAN: A 66-year-old Irish businessman who runs a fitness club on Koh Samui married his 31-year-old Thai male partner on Saturday after they had been living together for many years.
Alister Bredee gave a cash dowry of 400,000 baht, 10-baht weight of gold ornaments and a car, with a combined value of over one million baht, to the family of Pummaret Sangtong, at the latter’s house in tambon Nong Kradon in Muang district of this upper Central province. Relatives and friends of the couple attended the traditional ceremony.
The two men had lived together for 13 years before they decided to tie the knot.
Same-sex marriages are not legally recognised in Thailand but a number of them have taken place amid a general atmosphere of tolerance. The government is currently reviewing a proposed bill that would recognise civil partnerships between couples of the same sex.
Mr Bredee said via an interpreter that he had run a fitness business on Koh Samui for more than 15 years before Mr Pummaret applied for a job there. Over time, he said, he observed that Mr Pummaret was a dedicated worker and he later promoted him to be his personal assistant.
The work relationship gradually became a close personal one and the two later moved in together. After living together for 13 years, Mr Bredee proposed that they marry and asked his partner to choose an auspicious time.
He said he loved his partner because he was diligent, honest and had a good heart.
The couple plan to live on Koh Samui as they love the sea and the atmosphere is pleasant there, said Mr Breede. However, when he gets older the couple might move to Nakhon Sawan, he added.
Mr Pummaret said he was very happy because he had never expected a marriage proposal, even after 13 years of living together.
The government is hoping to introduce a new law allowing same-sex civil partnerships, based on the French model, by the end of this year.
The Justice Ministry first proposed the bill in 2013 under the Yingluck Shinawatra government but it was sidelined after the 2014 military coup. Ministry officials say the law is needed to bring practices into line with a national human rights plan adopted in 2014.
In France, same-sex couples are allowed to enter into civil partnerships before the further step of fully legalising a marriage is taken.
Civil partnerships were introduced in the United Kingdom in 2004 to give same-sex couples similar tax treatment and legal rights as married couples. The French law, in force since 2009, gives same-sex couples tax and state pension rights as well as next-of-kin status equal to that of heterosexual couples.