Another country recognises same-sex marriages - but not all families are equal
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Thailand’s marriage equality bill comes into force on January 22. Thailand will this week become the first country in Southeast Asia to recognise marriages of same sex couples —but the law will not get rid of hurdles for those who are trying to build a legally recognised family.
![[The couple face hurdles getting their son to legally have a relationship to both parents]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/20/13/00/Despite-marriage-legalisation-same-sex-couple-still-struggle-to-build-a-family-in-Thailand-j319tu3f.jpeg)
For American businessman Jacob Holder and his Thai husband Surapong Koonpaew, who married in the United States in 2023 before returning to Thailand, their union will be recognised under Thai law. Soon after their wedding, the couple had a son, Elijah Bprin Holder Koonpaew, born through legal surrogacy in Colombia since that option is not available to same-sex couples in Thailand.
Elijah Bprin has the names of both of his parents on a US birth certificate, Jacob said, but the 18-month-old must live in Thailand on a tourist visa. Elijah has no legal relationship with Surapong in Thailand due to the absence of a same-sex couple surrogacy law and the strict definition of a parent.
Thailand's traditional definition of a family - a father being a man and a mother a woman - remains in Thai legal codes, in spite of the passage of the marriage equality law. "Legally, they have no connection," Jacob said of his son and his husband Surapong, a civil servant who also goes by the nickname Keng.
"If tomorrow, God forbid, something did happen to me, we have real concerns (about) what then happens between Keng and our son under the eyes of the Thai law.". The Thai health ministry is working on a draft bill to allow same-sex couple surrogacy, but it is unclear how long the process will take and whether it would be successful.
