THAILAND
Thailand’s same-sex marriage bill received approval from King Maha Vajiralongkorn and was published in the Royal Gazette on Sept. 24, the final step in the legislative process, and paving the way for marriages to begin on Jan. 22, 2025.
The law grants same-sex couples full equality with heterosexual married couples, including adoption, inheritance, medical, and taxation rights. It was approved overwhelmingly by legislators in the summer, but there was some worry that that the king could block its approval.
Thailand now becomes the first county in Southeast Asia to legalize same-sex marriage, and the 39th country worldwide.
“Congratulations on everyone’s love,” Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said in a post on X.
Thailand has long been a popular tourist destination for LGBTQ people and its queer community has made big strides in attaining legal rights in recent years.
A bill to allow Thai people to change their legal gender or identify as nonbinary was ordered drafted by previous Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, who was dismissed by a Constitutional Court ruling in August over ethics charges. It’s not yet clear if Shinawatra’s new Cabinet is approaching the gender identity law with the same priority.
HUNGARY
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is calling on queer candidates of his Fidesz party to discreetly out themselves to avoid further scandals ahead of 2026 elections.
Fidesz has pushed numerous anti-LGBTQ policies in the name of protecting family values over its 14 years in power, but over the past two years has found its leaders embroiled in several sex scandals that expose the party’s hypocrisy.
In February, the decision to pardon a man who had been convicted of helping to cover up sexual abuse a state-run children’s home led to the resignations of Hungary’s president and the woman who was expected to lead Fidesz into this summer’s European Parliament elections.
Earlier in September, Gergő Bese, a Catholic priest with strong ties to Fidesz who had advocated for stronger laws against LGBTQ people was revealed to have had several long-term relationships with men, participated in gay sex parties, and to have filmed himself having gay sex in videos that were available on gay porn web sites. Orbán has since scrubbed all photos of him with Bese from his social media and web sites.
One of the founders of Fidesz resigned in December 2020, after it was reported that Belgian police found him at an illegal gay sex party in Brussels during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.
Since coming to power, Fidesz has passed constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage and adoption by same-sex couples. It passed a law blocking access to materials seen to promote LGBTQ people to anyone under 18, and another banning recognition of transgender peoples’ gender identity.
According to polls, Fidesz is facing its strongest opposition in years ahead of the next elections scheduled for April 2026.
POLAND
The European Court of Human Rights delivered another ruling against Poland’s refusal to recognize same-sex couples on Sept.19, finding that the state’s refusal to recognize same-sex marriages concluded abroad violates same-sex couples’ right to private family life.
The case was brought by two lesbian couples who had married in the UK and Denmark respectively. Upon returning to Poland, authorities refused to register their marriages or allow them to file their taxes jointly.
“By refusing to register the applicants’ marriages under any form and failing to ensure that they have a specific legal framework providing for recognition and protection, the Polish authorities have left them in a legal vacuum and have not provided for the core needs of recognition and protection of same-sex couples in a stable and committed relationship. The court finds that none of the public interest grounds put forward by the government prevail over the applicants’ interest in having their respective relationships adequately recognized and protected by law,” the court ruled.
The European Court of Human Rights hears cases from states that have ratified the European Convention on Human Rights. While it does not have power to enforce its rulings, they are nonetheless influential in shaping local laws and decisions by domestic courts.
The European court has not found that the convention contains a right to same-sex marriage, but it has ruled that member states have an obligation to provide same-sex couples with a way to register their relationship and attain the rights of marriage. The court ruled last year that Poland’s lack of civil unions for same-sex couples was similarly a violation of the convention.
Poland’s government has tabled a civil union bill that it hopes to pass by the end of this year, but which faces a rough ride through a narrowly divided parliament, and it has been threatened with a veto by the country’s far-right president.
This week, a new poll showed that nearly two-thirds of Poles support civil unions, and narrow majorities also support same-sex marriage and adoption rights.
IRELAND
The government has decided to press ahead with new LGBTQ-inclusive hate crime legislation after bowing to opposition pressure to remove sections that would have expanded hate speech laws to protect trans people. The government expects to table the legislation is parliament in the coming weeks.
The new hate crime legislation will allow judges to impose harsher sentences on people convicted of crimes that are motivated by a victim’s “protected characteristic,” which includes their race, color, nationality, ethnic or national origin, sexual orientation, gender (including gender identity and expression), and disability.
Hate speech laws in Ireland already include provisions criminalizing hate speech based on sexual orientation, but not based on sex or gender. A bill passed by the lower house of parliament last year would have expanded hate speech laws to include protections based on gender and included provisions for spreading hatred on the internet along with the new hate crime provisions, but it stalled in the upper house.
Opposition to the bill centered on free speech concerns and eventually grew to include members of the government coalition.
Justice Minister Helen McEntee announced this week that the government was dropping the hate speech elements of the bill to focus on getting the hate crime provisions passed before the current term of parliament ends in March 2025.
Also this summer, the government announced it no longer believed it could introduce and pass conversion therapy legislation before the election.
Ireland’s LGBTQ community has expressed mixed feelings about the government’s decision.
“While we feel this is a missed opportunity to strengthen legislation on extreme hate speech, we nonetheless welcome their commitment to pass the hate crime sections of the legislation,” the Coalition Against Hate Crime said in a statement.
AUSTRALIA
LGBTQ activists in South Australia state scored a victory this week when the state legislature became the latest to pass a ban on so-called conversion therapy.
The new law criminalizes practices that seek to change or suppress a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity and taking someone out of South Australia to undergo conversion therapy. It also gives survivors an opportunity for redress through civil courts.
“This new law confirms we are not broken, disordered or in need of fixing,” Equality Australia CEO Anna Brown says in a statement. “The legislation is not perfect but it’s an important step forward, and it will protect thousands of vulnerable South Australians into the future.”
Conversion therapy has now been banned in all parts of Australia except the Northern Territory, Western Australia, and Tasmania, although the governments of the latter two have announced plans to bring forward legislation to do so.
While Australia’s state governments are moving forward on protections for LGBTQ Aussies, the federal government under Labor Party Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has dragged its feet on promised reforms since it was elected in 2022.
The federal government walked back earlier campaign commitments to pass a national ban on the practice, and also gave up on a promise to repeal loopholes in federal anti-discrimination laws that allow anti-LGBT discrimination in religious schools. The government also abandoned a pledge to introduce a ban on anti-LGBTQ vilification.
Earlier this summer, the government did an embarrassing policy 360 when it announced it was breaking a pledge to count LGBTQ people in the national Census, only to reverse that and announced that LGBTQ people would be counted in the 2026 survey after all.
