Thailand is likely to recognize a third gender in its new constitution.

Thailand is poised to recognise a third gender in its new constitution, with the constitutional drafting panel saying on Thursday that “Thai society has advanced”.

The panel, composed of members handpicked by the ruling junta, said that “there are not only men and women”, and that there is a need to recognize all genders.

“We need to protect all sexes – we consider all genders to be equal”, panel spokesman Kamnoon Sittisamarn told journalists.

The panel will send details of the measure to the National Reform Council by April. It will need to be formally approved by the ruling junta, also known as the National Council for Peace and Order.

Thailand has a significant LGBT community, with homosexual, transgender and transsexual people playing a prominent role in the country’s entertainment industry.

In 2012, a group of lawmakers and LGBT activists formed a committee to draft legislation recognizing same-sex couples that would, among other things, enable them to marry.

But discussion of the draft law was put on ice while Thailand struggled with political protests in 2013 and 2014.

“Society has advanced”, say Thai public officials who want to recognise a third gender in the new constitution.
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Xavier Symons

Xavier Symons is a bioethicist and scholar in residence at the Kennedy Institute for Ethics at Georgetown University.

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