Transcript of Couples wed in a riot of colour as Thailand legalises same-sex marriage | BBC News

And Thailand next, where the long wait is over for LGBTQ couples. Today, they will marry a same-sex marriage becomes legal in the country, the first in Southeast Asia. Lgbtq couples now have the same rights as other couples to manage assets, inherit, adopt, and take decisions about their partner's medical treatment. Jonathan Head is at the Siam Paragon, a luxury mall in central Bangkok, where the mass weddings are being held, and he joins us live for more on this. Jonathan, tell us more about the significance of today.

It is very significant to the LGBTQ community here. Everybody who's come to Thailand knows that LGBTQ people tend to be quite visible. You see a lot of trans people. It has a reputation as being a country that's very tolerant, easy place to be open, but they haven't had legal rights, and that's a big deal. Today, for the first time, I think for many of them, there's this acknowledgement that they are the same as everyone else. They've got the same rights. It's not complete There's still a few areas that still need to be improved. But being able to marry really is... For some of these couples have been together a very, very long time. I've actually got a couple with me now, Gay and Ploy. They've been together for 17 years. Congratulations to both of you. Tell me about, first of all, how do you feel today?

I'm really excited because we come here in the first couple to regist the licensed marriage. You're the first? Yes, in here. Number one. Number one in here. Very surprise because we wake up in the early morning and come together, and the first one is us.

Tell me why this is so important, because you could be open about being same-sex LGBTQ before, but actually legal marriage, why is that such a big step for you?

Because for the healthy and the text in Thailand, if we each other get married, we have the list of the text. And healthy for her, I have to sign the healthy and for the surgery or everything for her.

You can make big decisions for her.

Yeah. And for the property I give her for the marriage is okay in Thailand. If I sign the marriage license here.

So you can have a home together? Yeah. Any plans for children?

I think around 5 or 10 years. We need to hope to- You'd like to have some children as well?

Yeah.

In the future, I think.

What about your family's, what do they think about this?

Yeah, from our family, very happy for us because we met her in 17 years and we have a whole family now. And really happy today we got married like a married husband.

So today, do you feel like you have the same rights as everybody else in Thailand? Yeah.

We have the same Like a same person in Thailand.Fully accepted.Yeah..

Well, congratulations to both of you.Thank you.That's gay employ, just one of around 200 couples who have come down here today. You can hear the music behind me. It's been a very celebratory atmosphere, but it has been a long, hard campaign. Although this is a very light-hearted affair, for the campaigners, 10 years ago, they were not at all sure that they could get this law through. There was a lot of resistance. Public attitudes have really shifted in Thailand. For all of its famous openness, there was a lot of resistance to actually changing the law. Today, there are no gender-specific terms relating to marriage, and that makes such a big difference to everybody here. The rest of the region, of course, very different. In neighboring countries, a combination of either religion or tradition, or just the lack of political freedom, all of those make it much more difficult. So Thailand is still very much an outlier in Southeast Asia. Back to you, Stephen.