THAILAND - Same-Sex Couples Wed
The landmark bill marks a momentous win for the LGBTQ+ community, which has fought for more than a decade for the same marriage rights as heterosexual couples.
Under the legislation, passed by Thailand’s parliament and endorsed by the king last year, same-sex couples are able to register their marriages with full legal, financial, and medical rights, as well as adoption and inheritance rights.
“This could be a model for the world because we now have Thailand as a model,” said Kittinun Daramadhaj, a lawyer and president of the Rainbow Sky Association of Thailand. “There is true marriage equality in Thailand.”
But rights experts have warned Thailand may well be the last Asian jurisdiction to recognize same-sex marriage for some time, given the incremental progress elsewhere in the region.
More than 30 jurisdictions worldwide now recognize same-sex marriage, according to the Pew Research Center, but most advances have been made in Europe, the Americas and Australasia.
-www.cnn.com, 23 January 2025
Arno's Commentary
Thailand is unique. Wikipedia states, “In the 19th and early 20th centuries, only Thailand survived the European colonial threat in Southeast Asia due to centralizing reforms enacted by King Chulalongkorn, and because the French and the British decided to maintain it as a neutral territory to avoid conflicts between their colonies.”
About the sodomites, we have a report in Genesis 18:20: “And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous.” Abraham intervened for these cities, asking God to spare them if there would be 10 righteous people found. Quite apparently, there were not.
God sends two angels to Sodom to rescue Lot and his family. Verse 4 and 5 of chapter 19 read: “But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.” The sodomites were in charge of the city. When Lot tried to compromise, “they said, Stand back. And they said again, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door” (verse 9).
The apostle Paul confirms: “Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves” (Romans 1:24).
Arno Froese is the executive director of Midnight Call Ministries and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed prophetic magazines Midnight Call and News From Israel. He has authored a number of well-received books, and has sponsored many prophecy conferences in the U.S., Canada, and Israel. His extensive travels have contributed to his keen insight into Bible prophecy, as he sees it from an international perspective.
