Several advocacy groups campaigning for marriage equality on Wednesday petitioned the opposition Pheu Thai Party to support their bid to propose amendments to the Civil and Commercial Code that allows only a man and a woman to register their marriage and enjoy legal benefits of that relationship.
Led by Chumaporn Tangkliang, the umbrella group of 58 LGBTQ+ organisations calling itself Rainbow Fellows for Marriage Equality submitted an open letter to Cholnan Srikaew, the party leader.
It intends to gather one million signatures to support its draft amendments to Section 1448 of the Civil and Commercial Code to allow people to register their marriages regardless of their gender.
The group claimed the Constitutional Court had ruled that same sex marriage isn't against the constitution and recommended that a law is passed to ensure the right to equal marriage for everyone.
Among the parts of the Civil and Commercial Code the group said should be amended is the definition of marriage that is given as the legal relationship between a man and a woman who are legally wed.
The terms father and mother should also be replaced by "parents" while the term husband and wife should be changed to "spouses", said the group, adding that this way any couples or lovers would have equal rights to marry thus resulting in "real marriage equality".
Dr Cholnan said Pheu Thai supports the move and intends to push to propose the draft to parliament at the latest session, due to end on Feb 28.
In another development, Kerdchoke Kasemwongjit, deputy director-general of the Rights and Liberties Protection Department (RLPD), said the civil partnership bill, approved by the cabinet last year, had met a dead end.
Parliament sent it back to the department with a request that it support the bill with the exact number of people who will benefit from the draft law, he explained.
He said that as it is difficult to determine the exact number of people in society who identify as part of the LGBT group, it would be impossible to pass this bill into law because of what he described as a political game.
He said the bill has been revised dramatically to ensure same sex couples will be entitled to legal rights almost equal to those of heterosexual couples.