House rejects self-selection of gender-based name honorifics

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From Thai PBS World

The opposition Move Forward party has vowed to continue to push for a bill seeking to allow members of the LGBTQ community to choose their own honorific name prefixes, after it was shot down in parliament on Wednesday.

Move Forward party-list MP Tunyawaj Kamolwongwat said that the party will not back off from its push for the passage of the bill in the next parliamentary session, adding that they are supportive of LGBTQ people.

Another Move Forward MP, Paramee Waichongcharoen, said that his highest dream is that, one day, he can remove the prefix “Mister” from his name. He questioned the sincerity of government coalition parties and Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin regarding equal rights for the LGBTQ community.

The House of Representatives rejected the bill by 256:152 votes, with one abstention, after a lengthy debate. The bill was proposed by Tunyawaj and seconded by several of the party’s MPs.

Tunyawaj said that, even though the Constitution guarantees human dignity and gender equality, there is still no law which guarantees the rights of LGBTQ people to choose theirhonorifics and they must accept those associated with their sex at birth or marital status, namely Mr, Mrs or Miss.

He said that many LGBTQ individuals are embarrassed bytheir honorifics, as they do not reflect their chosen gender, which also affects their livelihood.

In Thailand, transgender individuals cannot change their honorifics, so transgender women must use the prefix ‘Nai’ (Mister) in legal documents and cannot switch to ‘Nang-sao’ (Miss).