On Thursday, Joe and Mate will tie the knot in central Bangkok, joining roughly 200 couples in a joyful mass-wedding that marks a seismic shift in Thailand. After decades of campaigning and countless setbacks, the country is becoming the first in southeast Asia – and only the second in Asia after Taiwan – to introduce full marriage equality.

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.

Thai society has long been seen as accepting of gender-fluid identities and relationships, but matching legal structures were absent

It is a big day many in Thailand’s LGBTQ+ community have long been waiting for, as couples celebrate a law giving them the same legal rights as married heterosexuals

Same-sex couples in Thailand are poised to celebrate a landmark achievement many decades in the making: the legal right to marry. On Thursday a marriage equality bill will become law, allowing members of the LGBTQ+ community in Thailand to get married and have the same legal rights as heterosexual couples.

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,