A high-profile gay couple married in Thailand on Thursday as the kingdom's same-sex marriage law went into effect, an AFP journalist saw, among the first of hundreds expected to do so.

In the 2019 election which returned Thailand to civilian rule after five years under a military government, a new reformist party called Future Forward, which fully supported equal marriage, did unexpectedly well. They won the third-largest share of seats, revealing a growing hunger for change in Thailand.