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'Love Wins': Thailand Set to Be First Southeast Asian Nation to Legalize Same-Sex Marriage
"While there is no doubt that the legalization of marriage for LGBTI couples is a key milestone for Thailand, much more must be done to guarantee full protection," said one campaigner.
Jun 18, 2024
LGBTQ+ advocates around the world on Tuesday cheered the Thai Senate's passage of a bill legalizing same-sex marriage, a move that—if approved by the country's king as expected—would make Thailand the first country in Southeast Asia to do so.
The Bangkok Postreported Thai senators voted 130-4, with 18 abstentions, in favor of a bill to legalize same-sex marriages in the country of 72 million people. The Thai House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the legislation in March. The legislation would become law if it passes further review by the Senate and the Constitutional Court and is approved by King Rama X. Royal assent is a formality that will almost certainly be granted.
"The bill represents a monumental step forward for LGBTQ+ rights in Thailand," Panyaphon Phiphatkhunarnon, founder of the advocacy group Love Foundation, toldCNN.
Plaifa Kyoka Shodladd, an 18-year-old activist, toldThe New York Times that "after 20 years of trying to legalize this matter, finally, love wins."
In Asia, only Nepal and Taiwan have achieved same-sex marriage equality. Thailand would become the 39th nation to legalize same-sex marriage worldwide.
Legalization "would underscore Thailand's leadership in the region in promoting human rights and gender equality," said the Thai Civil Society Commission of Marriage Equality, Activists, and LGBTI+ Couples.
Amnesty International Thailand researcher Chanatip Tatiyakaroonwong said in a
statement: "Thailand has taken a historic step towards becoming the first country in Southeast Asia to legalize marriage for LGBTI couples. This landmark moment is a reward for the tireless work of activists, civil society organizations, and lawmakers who have fought for this victory."
"While there is no doubt that the legalization of marriage for LGBTI couples is a key milestone for Thailand, much more must be done to guarantee full protection of LGBTI people in the country," Chanatip continued. "LGBTI people in Thailand continue to face many forms of violence and discrimination, including but not limited to technology-facilitated gender-based violence, which often targets human rights defenders."
"Thai authorities must build on the momentum and take further steps that protect the rights and ensure the participation of LGBTI people and organizations," Chanatip added.
Thailand's imminent legalization of same-sex marriage equality stands in contrast with the hundreds of pieces of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation proposed or passed mostly in Republican-controlled state legislatures in the United States.
Advocates are also worried about the future of LGBTQ+ rights at the national level, as U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas suggested in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization—the ruling that erased half a century of federal abortion rights—that the high court could reconsider cases including Obergefell v. Hodges, which in 2015 legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.
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Vietnam Sentences Billionaire to Death for White Collar Fraud
The trials of Tru'o'ng Mỹ Lan and 84 others are part of an anti-corruption campaign led by the head of Vietnam's Communist Party.
Apr 11, 2024
As global billionaires see their wealth soar to record heights, one Vietnamese real estate tycoon was sentenced to death on Thursday in the Southeast Asian nation's largest-ever financial fraud case, part of a government crackdown on corruption.
Tru'o'ng Mỹ Lan, founder of the real estate developer Vạn Thịnh Phát Group, was arrested in October 2022 for illegally controlling and embezzling money from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) for a decade after a 2011 merger she arranged.
"Lan embezzled $12.5 billion, but prosecutors said Thursday the total damages caused by the scam now amounted to $27 billion—a figure equivalent to 6% of the country's 2023 [gross domestic product]," according to Agence France-Presse. "The court ordered Lan, 67, to pay almost the entire damages sum in compensation."
The BCCreported that "according to prosecutors, over a period of three years from February 2019, she ordered her driver to withdraw 108 trillion Vietnamese dong, more than $4 billion in cash from the bank, and store it in her basement. That much cash, even if all of it was in Vietnam's largest denomination banknotes, would weigh two tonnes."
AFP spoke with one of the 42,000 victims of the scandal identified by authorities:
Nga, a 67-year-old Hanoi resident... told AFP Thursday that she had hoped for a life sentence for Lan so she could live to fully witness the pain her actions had caused ordinary people.
"Many people worked hard to deposit money into the bank, but now she's received the death sentence and that's it for her," said Nga, using a pseudonym to protect her identity.
"She can't see the suffering of the people."
Nga has so far been unable to retrieve the $120,000 she invested with SCB.
Human rights advocates consider Vietnam to be a global leader in death penalty sentences and executions, though data on the topic are considered state secrets, so precise figures are not known.
"From January to early October 2023, at least 189 people have been sentenced to death in Vietnam," The Vietnamese Magazinereported last year, citing state media reports. Among them, "44 were convicted of murder (23%), while the remaining 145 (77%) were involved in illegally trading or transporting narcotic substances."
Amnesty International, which opposes the death penalty in all cases, released its latest annual report on sentences and executions worldwide last May. While noting the Vietnamese government's limits on official data, the group found that in 2022, there were at least 102 sentences handed down and over 1,200 people on death row in the country.
"The death penalty in Vietnam is used to intimidate those who would break the law, while also showing the power of the ruling party," Human Rights Watch's Asia deputy director Phil Robertson toldCNN in 2022. "This is a government that chases down dissidents, runs roughshod over civil society, sentences and imprisons people after kangaroo court trials, and now we know, executes far more people than anyone else in [the region]."
"Vietnam's horrendous record of executions dwarfs that of any of its neighbors but it is not surprising that the government has systematically implemented the death penalty and kept executions out of the public eye," Robertson added.
As the BCC noted:
The habitually secretive communist authorities were uncharacteristically forthright about this case, going into minute detail for the media. They said 2,700 people were summoned to testify, while 10 state prosecutors and around 200 lawyers were involved.
The evidence was in 104 boxes weighing a total of six tonnes. Eighty-five others were tried with Tru'o'ng Mỹ Lan, who denied the charges and can appeal.
All of the defendants were found guilty. Four received life in jail. The rest were given prison terms ranging from 20 years to three years suspended.
The trials were part of the ongoing "Blazing Furnace" anti-corruption campaign spearheaded by Nguyễn Phú Trọng, secretary-general of Vietnam's Communist Party.
Multiple top officials have left office during the campaign, including Vietnamese President Võ Văn Thưởng, who resigned last month. The Communist Party did not offer details about the reason for his departure but said that "Thưởng's violations and shortcomings have caused bad public opinion, affecting the reputation of the party, the state, and him personally."
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'Huge Win for People and Planet': Biden Pauses LNG Export Approvals
"This is one of the most significant actions ever taken by a U.S. president to stop the dangerous expansion of fossil fuels and protect environmental justice," one campaigner said.
Jan 26, 2024
Environmental justice and climate advocates celebrated on Friday as the Biden administration announced that it was pausing approvals for all liquefied natural gas exports to non-Fair Trade Agreement countries in order to review the criteria it uses to approve or reject them.
In a statement, the White House said that the criteria used by the Department of Energy (DOE) was "roughly five years old" and therefore did not "adequately account for considerations like potential energy cost increases for American consumers and manufacturers beyond current authorizations or the latest assessment of the impact of greenhouse gas emissions."
The decision came following a sixth-month push by frontline communities and the wider climate movement to stop Venture Global's proposed Calcasieu Pass 2 (CP2) export terminal as well as the broader LNG buildout planned for Louisiana's Gulf Coast. CP2 alone would have emitted 20 times more than the controversial Willow oil drilling project in Alaska, while nearly 20 other planned terminals would have released the equivalent of 675 coal plants.
"The tide is turning," Oil Change International U.S. program manager Collin Rees said in a statement. "President [Joe] Biden pausing pending liquefied natural gas (LNG) export applications is a huge win for people and planet. Following the commitment at the COP28 climate talks to transition away from fossil fuels, this is one of the most significant actions ever taken by a U.S. president to stop the dangerous expansion of fossil fuels and protect environmental justice. The momentum for a renewable energy future is undeniable."
The White House statement, which came two days after The New York Times reported that a pause was forthcoming, reflected many of the concerns raised by activists, including the impacts of LNG terminals on nearby communities and new science indicating that the total emissions from LNG were actually greater than from domestically produced coal.
"Today, we have an evolving understanding of the market need for LNG, the long-term supply of LNG, and the perilous impacts of methane on our planet," the White House said. "We also must adequately guard against risks to the health of our communities, especially frontline communities in the United States who disproportionately shoulder the burden of pollution from new export facilities."
Rees continued: "Biden's announcement shows two things: One, the marches, petitions, and grassroots organizing from frontline communities, youth, and their allies are working. And two, Biden is afraid his climate hypocrisy will cost him the election if he doesn't make real progress on fossil fuels."
The statement ended with a list of the Biden administration's "top climate accomplishments."
"Tapping the brakes on CP2 is the best signal yet that the Biden administration is ready to put people and the planet ahead of fossil fuel profiteers," Lauren Parker, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity's Climate Law Institute, said in a statement. "This is a crucial moment to protect future generations by halting the massive U.S. fossil fuel expansion. Now that the administration is listening to frontline communities, youth, and climate advocates, it needs to go all in on phasing out fossil fuels. We need a public interest test that denies any fossil fuel expansion that would drive us deeper into climate catastrophe."
"It's time our struggles and our voices are acknowledged in the national energy policy conversation."
The decision was applauded by Louisiana and Texas activists who have been raising alarm about the impacts of fossil fuel infrastructure on their communities for years.
"This announcement from the Biden administration is truly monumental for our communities," Roishetta Ozane, director of the Vessel Project of Louisiana, said in a statement. "As someone who has witnessed the devastating impacts of fossil fuel extractive industries, I am filled with hope and gratitude for this important step towards justice. Halting permits for these industries is a clear acknowledgment of the urgent need to protect the well-being and rights of those of us who have been disproportionately affected. It is a powerful statement that we can no longer allow these industries to continue operating without considering the health and safety of the people living in these areas."
Travis Dandar, the founder of Fisherman Involved in Sustaining Our Heritage, said the pause could be a "turning point" for places like Cameron, Louisiana, where fishing has declined by 50% because of existing LNG export terminals and tanker traffic.
"The disruption to our fishing grounds, the risk of explosions, and the loss of our cherished wetlands—these are the realities we live with," Dandar said in a statement. "It's time our struggles and our voices are acknowledged in the national energy policy conversation."
Frontline activists in Texas also hoped the decision would have a broader impact on the region.
"I am hopeful this announcement will be the catalyst for real change in our communities and a clean energy future," Freeport, Texas resident Gwen Jones said in a statement. "The reality is that fossil fuel companies are still building in people's backyards and exposing people to toxic pollution. We still need to fight for an end to fossil fuels."
"For too long, the United States served as an enabler for Big Oil and Big Gas' get-rich-quick scheme, as it got countries around the world addicted to fossil fuels at the expense of American families."
Public Citizen, meanwhile, focused on the benefits to U.S. consumers of not exporting gas.
"For far too long, Big Oil executives have pursued an 'America Last' policy, price gouging consumers and pushing harmful export policies, in a myopic and ham-fisted vision that puts profit above everything," Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen's energy program, said in a statement. "Reconsidering the impact fossil fuel exports have on our economy and climate is a vital step toward protecting American households from the impact LNG exports have on higher utility bills."
The White House statement also echoed arguments put forward by activists that no new exports are needed to provide gas to the European Union following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
"Today's announcement will not impact our ability to continue supplying LNG to our allies in the near-term," the statement said.
It came a day after a group of 60 E.U. parliamentarians sent a letter to the Biden administration urging it not to build more LNG infrastructure.
"The E.U. has already initiated its gas phaseout, our analysis shows the E.U. will cut its oil and gas demand by one-third by 2030 and gas can be effectively phased out by 2040," Linda Kalcher, executive director at Strategic Perspectives, said in a statement. "New LNG investments will be a white elephant U.S. investors will live to regret."
Experts and activists in Asia, another major market for U.S. gas, also welcomed the news.
"Asia does not need any new LNG," Gerry Arances, executive director at the Center for Energy, Ecology, and Development in the Philippines, said in a statement. "The region is already suffering impacts from unsustainable LNG development. Further expansion risks severe ecological and economic damages."
"We cannot afford to let up in our efforts to hold decision-makers accountable and ensure that frontline communities are no longer subjected to the harmful effects of these industries."
In the U.S., Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass), who introduced a bill in May 2023 to ban fossil fuel exports, also applauded the news.
"For too long, the United States served as an enabler for Big Oil and Big Gas' get-rich-quick scheme, as it got countries around the world addicted to fossil fuels at the expense of American families," Markey said in a statement. "This surge in natural gas exports was matched by rising energy costs at home and soaring global temperatures driven by fossil-fueled climate change. I applaud the Biden administration for this much-needed move to protect American communities from export-driven pollution and profiteering."
In the immediate aftermath of the decision, activists canceled a sit-in they had planned to take place at the Department of Energy in Washington, D.C. from February 6-8.
"The best direct actions are the ones you don't have to do. Thanks to everybody whose deep commitment helped bring this day about," Third Act co-founder Bill McKibben, who helped bring the fight against the LNG buildout to national attention with an article in The New Yorker last September, said in a statement.
Yet as they took a moment to celebrate, activists acknowledged that there was more work ahead.
"This is a major sign of hope, but this fight is not over," 350.org U.S. campaign manager Candice Fortin said in a statement. "Let's be real: The harmful effects of fracked gas on health and climate are not in question. The oil and gas industry and the government know the data. So now that they have paused, there is only one thing to do: Vow to reject CP2 and all 17 proposed LNG projects, and to phase out ALL fossil fuels."
Ozane concluded: "While this decision is a significant victory, we must not become complacent. The fight for environmental justice and the elimination of fossil fuel extractive industries must continue. We must remain vigilant and continue to advocate for sustainable alternatives. We cannot afford to let up in our efforts to hold decision-makers accountable and ensure that frontline communities are no longer subjected to the harmful effects of these industries. This announcement is a reason to celebrate, but it is also a reminder that our work is far from over."
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