Thailand made history by legalizing same-sex marriage, becoming the first Southeast Asian nation and the third in Asia, following Taiwan and Nepal, to do so.

Thailand's monumental Marriage Equality Act has come into effect on Friday allowing LGBTQ couples to tie the knot. | ITV National News

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.

Police have issued warnings against traveling to Cambodia or Thailand when others have paid for the travel fare in light of increasing cases of teenagers, middle-aged and elderly people being tricked into traveling to these countries and then being held for ransom.

Hundreds of couples this week are poised to marry in Thailand as its overwhelmingly popular marriage equality law goes into effect, according to multiple reports.

Hundreds of LGBTQ+ couples in Thailand are expected to make their wedded status legal on the first day a law takes effect granting them the same rights as heterosexual couples

Hundreds of LGBTQ+ couples in Thailand made Thursday a life-changing occasion, registering their marriages legally on the first day a law took

But in the 2019 election which returned Thailand to civilian rule, a new, youthful 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.

It is a 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.

Thailand's historic same-sex marriage equality law came into force on Thursday, making it the first country in Southeast Asia and third territory in Asia after Taiwan and Nepal to legalise marriages of same-sex couples.

Hundreds of people began registering their marriages at a mall in Bangkok, as Thailand became one of the few places in Asia to legalize same-sex unions.