Sexuality education is part of the national curriculum of Thailand and is widely available in its education system. According to a 2016 review, "Ninety-nine percent of general secondary teachers and 93% of vocational teachers stated that sexuality education was being provided in their schools.” Between 84-90% of surveyed general secondary students and 75% of vocational students stated that sexuality education had been carried out in school².  Quality, evidence-based CSE aims to equip children and young people with knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values that will empower them to realize their health, well-being, and dignity, and to develop respectful social and sexual relationships. However, CSE in Thailand currently does not sufficiently link to the topics of human rights, gender equality, and sexual and gender diversity. The content is inconsistent across the country and overall lacks quality. Half of the secondary school teachers and less than half of the vocational teachers teaching sexuality education reported they never received any training. This leads to instructors with a lack of knowledge and biased perceptions on sexuality misleading students. 34% of Thai adolescents feel that the information they receive in schools is inadequate and lacking3.   An emphasis is placed on biology and the negative consequences of sex related to pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. However, most curriculums have insufficient information about sexuality and bodily autonomy and fails to promote the positive aspects of sexuality. Furthermore, it lacks an agenda to promote student’s critical-thinking skills related to sexuality.  

Young people in Thailand are increasingly assessing information on sexuality in digital spaces, as is the global trend. More than four in five Thai youths look for information on sexuality online as it allows them to easily access them in anonymity, which is a priority in conservative settings where sexuality issues are taboo. However, information provided online is often misleading and fosters toxic attitudes towards sexuality, making it all the more important to implement comprehensive sexuality education as a mandatory subject at schools ⁴. Various policies, laws and development plans that support the provision of CSE in educational institutions at the national level are: 

• The National Child and Youth Development Plan 2012-2016 (Office of Promotion and Protection of Children, Youth, the Elderly and Vulnerable Groups) identifies key strategies for ensuring that all youth receive information and skill development related to sexuality education, reproductive health, and family life. 

• The 2014- 2016 National AIDS Prevention and Control Policy and Strategy (National AIDS Prevention and Alleviation Committee) support the role of educational institutions in arranging learning activities related to CSE to ensure that young people have an adequate understanding of safe sex. 

• The Teenage Pregnancy Prevention and Alleviation Act of 2016 mandated educational institutions to play a role in the prevention of teenage pregnancies by providing age-appropriate sexuality education.

Thailand has established national laws and institutions to protect and eliminate sexual and gender-based violence, such as the law on domestic violence. Thailand has criminalized marital rape and underscored the protection of people of all genders against sexual violence, as well as provide health and social service facilities that respond to the problem of violence. Yet, in practice the level of discrimination and violence is still high. Thailand is a patriarchal society, in which women are generally tied to the role of family caretaker which usually means raising children and taking care of the elderly, as well as other household chores. Acts of violence and abuse are often silenced or go unreported out of fear of being re-victimized. Section 3 of the Gender Equality Act (2015) on the power and duties of the Committee for the Promotion of Gender Equality (PGE) states that “Unfair gender discrimination” means any act or omission of the act which causes division, discrimination or limitation of any right and benefit either directly or indirectly without justification due to the fact that the person is male or female or of a different appearance from his/her own sex by birth.” 

According to Section 10, one of the special measures to truly promote the gender equality is” to improve the tradition of social and cultural behaviors between genders to eliminate biased practices based on disparity and gender-based violence in order to eliminate obstacles in accessing rights.” 

RAPE 

The criminal code was amended in 2019 with tougher penalties related to rape in an attempt to curb sexual crimes. After the 2019 amendment, the penalties for sexual violence against children under the age of 13 will lead to life imprisonment and rape of minors aged 15 or under will be sentenced to five to 20 years in jail and a fine of 100k to 400k baht. The new law further recognizes that men can be victims of rape and addresses growing concerns of online gender-based violence. Section 280/1 stipulates that in the case of rape where pictures, videos or audio of the assault are recorded the prison term will be increased by a third.  In the case of distribution of photos or audio recordings of a rape or sexual assault, the prison term will be increased by half. The death penalty remains for perpetrators who raped and caused the death of their victims.  

Although the legal amendments have a positive impact in discouraging sexual crimes and combat impunity, the enforcement of the law and social transformation to address deep-rooted patriarchy are equally critical to fight harmful social norms in Thai society.  

Although "private, consensual and non-commercial sodomy" was decriminalized in Thailand in 1956, current legislative policies are failing to protect the rights of gender diverse persons and grant them equal citizenships.

LEGAL GENDER RECOGNITION 

Sex reassignment operations have been performed in Thailand since 1975, and Thailand is known globally to patients seeking such operations. However, important legal protection against discrimination such as legal gender recognition remains lacking. Although sex reassignment surgeries are legal and advanced in Thailand, transgender individuals are not allowed to change their sex on legal documents even after a physical transformation. As a result, transgender people in Thailand experience numerous barriers to their rights to health, education, work, freedom of movement, and non-discrimination. 

SAME SEX MARRIAGE 

Currently, there is no marriage equality in Thailand and barriers to legalize the recognition of same-sex relationship are still intact. In June 2022 progress was made when 4 proposed bills and amendments extending marriage and/or civil partnership to LGBTQ+ people were approved during the first reading at the Thai House of Representatives, and were forwarded to the chamber for further reading. Activists and advocates place support on the Marriage Equality bill that calls for an amendment of the Civil and Commercial Code to allow any two persons, regardless of sex or gender to legally wed. Of all the bills, the marriage equality bill is the only proposed law that will secure fundamental marriage rights to the LGBTI+ community. 

DISCRIMINATION 

The 2015 Gender Equality Act aims to protect people from discrimination based on gender. Section 3 defines gender discrimination as not limited to men and women, but applying to persons who have a different appearance from his/her own sex by birth. The banning of discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation became the first law in Thailand to contain language mentioning LGBT people.