Gay Travel to Thailand: our country guide to the land of smiles

“You've been to so many places in the world guys, you must have a favourite?”

We sure do! Can you guess what it is?

Hint…

it's a country with gorgeous beaches, mouth-watering food, a rich cultural heritage, plenty of adventure activities, warm-hearted welcoming people, largely inexpensive, and a fantastic gay scene in its capital…

…it's THAILAND!

That's right, the “Land of Smiles“ is one place we are always happy to come back to. It was one of the first places we ever came to in Asia many moons ago, and it's one place we always strive to visit again and again, every single year! From the Circuit parties during Songkran to the fantastic street-party feel during New Years, we love love LOVE Thailand! For this reason, we rate Thailand as one of the not-to-miss gay travel vacation destinations in the world.

THAILAND IS A DESTINATION THAT OFFERS SO MUCH TO LGBTQ TRAVELERS. We've put together this comprehensive gay guide to Thailand setting out the best gay scenes across the country, the best queer events to look out for, lots of inspiration for the best activities to do here, and other practical information for LGBTQ travelers.

Here we go!

Gay rights in Thailand

Overall, Thailand has progressive LGBTQ laws in places, easily making it one of the most gay friendly countries in Asia in our humble opinion. For example, homosexuality was legalised in 1956 then declassified as an illness in 2002. Furthermore, comprehensive anti-discrimination laws were introduced in 2015, the LGBT community have been allowed to serve openly in the military since 2005, and civil union laws are on the verge of being introduced.

In relation to the transgender community, the right to change legal gender is in the process of being introduced as well, but despite the lack of comprehensive laws about this,

Thailand remains a haven for the transgender community in Asia. All the transgender men and women we met during our travels in Asia strived to come to Bangkok for a better life and to have the best surgeries. You can read more about this in our interview with our transgender female friend Regina from the Philippines.

When it comes to same-sex marriage, Thailand still has a way to go, especially when compared to its more liberal Asian neighbour, Taiwan which became the first place in Asia to introduce gay marriage laws in 2019. However, by Asian standards, Thailand remains one of the few LGBTQ-friendly hubs in Asia.

In Thailand safe for gay travellers?

Absolutely hell yeah!

WE KEEP COMING BACK TO THAILAND FOR THIS VERY REASON. The Thais are one of the most warm-hearted and welcoming people we've ever come across. Most are Buddhist, a religion with tolerance and acceptance at its core. We felt this from the moment we set foot for our first time at Suvarnabhumi Airport as a young gay couple: no one cared that we are a gay couple, no one gave us funny looks and no one was violent towards us. At worst, people asked if we are brothers…!

Thanks a lot for this such a great article! J  credited by : https://nomadicboys.com/thailand-gay-guide/