Songstress and Legendary diva Diana Ross once boldly proclaimed, “I’m coming out. I want the world to know.” Unfortunately, young queer kids in Thailand might be whispering back, “I don’t know. Lemme think about it.”, as the Thai government has failed to take accountability for their lack of effort at establishing rights and protections for the LGBTQ+ community. 

 

In the article titled “Thailand’s New Government is Failing the LGBTQ Community”, author Mookdapa Yangyuenpradorn criticizes the Thai Government’s failure to reintroduce a marriage equality bill. Srettha Thavsin, the recently elected prime minister, ran on a platform that included support for this law as well as other pledges of modernization and economic growth. However, the issue has gradually been pushed into the background, becoming a “medium to long term” point of agenda. 

 

While the government’s unwillingness to grant the LGBTQ community their rights is striking, so are the implications religion has in Thailand as well. Over 90% of Thailand is Buddhist. Buddist values do not explicitly prohibit nor support homosexuality & transgenderism. However, this presents another problem. What author Tom Boellstorff referred to as the “incommensurability” between religion and sexual orientation. An idea, in this context, that being Buddhist and being queer is ungrammatical or does not go together. This introduces a lack of discourse on queer identities within the religion that can make it hard for Buddhist queer Thais to feel a sense of belonging or like they do not have a voice within their own religion. This also leaves Buddhist teachings up for interpretation among the queer community which could cause confusion and a lack of cohesion. Feeling unprotected and underrepresented in both polity and religion is a dangerous combination for the future of Thailand’s progress in the modern world. 

 

https://thediplomat.com/2023/09/thailands-new-government-is-failing-the-lgbtq-community/