Hundreds of same-sex couples are expected to tie the knot across Thailand on Thursday as the country becomes the first in Southeast Asia to recognize marriage equality.

It's a big week for LGBTQ+ couples in Thailand. On Thursday, they will be able to legally register their marriages, making it only the third place in Asia, after Taiwan and Nepal, where they have such a right.

Thailand is now the first nation in Southeast Asia to legalize same-sex marriage, granting LGBTQ couples the same human rights as their heterosexual counterparts. The new law, effective this Thursday,

"It has been a long fight full of tears for us." That is how Ann "Waaddao" Chumaporn describes the years that led to this moment – on Thursday, when same-sex marriage becomes legal in Thailand, and more than a hundred couples will tie the knot in one of Bangkok's biggest shopping malls,

LGBTQ+ couples and activists have gathered in Thailand’s capital, Bangkok, to celebrate ahead of the country’s first same-sex weddings on Thursday (23 January). Last June, Thailand became the first country in Southeast Asia to legalise gay marriage.