They’ve waited six years to call themselves a “family.” Pehthai Thanomkhet and Nathnicha Klinthaworn finally did on Thursday when Thailand’s law on same-sex marriage came into effect and they got formally married at a mass wedding event in Bangkok. Wearing a tan Thai suit, Thanomkhet, 31, walked into Paragon Hall, an event space in one of the Thai capital’s biggest malls. There he held hands with Klinthaworn, 39, who wore a golden-white traditional Thai dress as the couple made their union official. “I feel it has unlocked everything,” said Thanomkhet, a human resources manager who goes by his English name, Kevin.  “We can now use the word ‘family,’” he said. The mass wedding was organized by a Thai rights group, Naruemit Pride, with almost 200 couples successfully registering marriages at the daylong event. In groups of 10 at a time, the couples presented their documents to officials sitting at desks who then legally registered them as married. Spread across the hall, arches adorned with colorful balloons and flowers and the slogan “Love wins” served as photo backdrops for many of the newlyweds. Like many others getting married on Thursday, Thanomkhet and Klinthaworn had called for years for same-sex marriage to be legally recognized in the Southeast Asian nation.  A couple poses with their certificates after registering their marriage in Bangkok, Thailand, on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025. (Valeria Mongelli/Bloomberg via Getty Images) “When the district officer was signing, I felt my tears brimming inside. We have fought for two years, but others have fought for 20 years, and today is a success,” said Klinthaworn, a live-streamer and salesperson who goes by the name Maple. According to Thailand’s Ministry of Interior, 1,832 couples across the country registered marriages under the new law on Thursday, including 654 in Bangkok, 179 of whom were at the mass wedding. While Thailand has long been known as LGBT-friendly, it also retains conservative social values and struggled to pass legislation recognizing same-sex marriage. Thai lawmakers finally passed a marriage equality bill last year, amending the country’s civil and commercial code to replace gender-specific phrases such as “men and women” and “husband and wife” with “individuals” and “marriage partners.” The law allows LGBT couples to have the same legal and financial rights as others, making Thailand the first country in Southeast Asia and the third place in Asia, after Taiwan and Nepal, to recognize same-sex marriage. The government has embraced the change, organizing a photo session last week for activists and couples as well as a meeting with Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and other high-ranking officials. “23 January is the day that we all mark in history, that the rainbow flag has been planted in Thailand gracefully,” Paetongtarn posted in Thai on her Instagram account last week. “All the love from all the people is accepted legally with respect and dignity.” The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration said it had organized workshops and lectures for all officials in charge of handling marriage registration to raise awareness and offer guidance on appropriate communication. Robert Conner, a Thai American public relations executive based in Washington, said he hoped the law would spread awareness among neighboring countries and even inspire them to follow Thailand’s example. “Even if these other countries don’t follow Thailand’s example of marriage equality, they can at least consider decriminalizing same-sex activities,” said Conner, 27, who was born and raised in Phuket.  There is also hope that it will benefit Thailand’s tourism-dependent economy, encouraging LGBT travelers from the United States and elsewhere to consider Thailand as a place to visit and even as a wedding destination. But there is still room for improvement, Conner said, noting that changes to legal language around marriage did not extend to family law. “This means that with some same-sex couples, there can be cases where one parent has no legal protection or no legal connection to their own child,” he said.  It was still a huge leap forward for couples who have waited years for this moment.  “I have counted down the date since the day the law passed for today,” said Pisit Sirihirunchai, a police officer who married his partner Chanatip Sirihirunchai. Thanomkhet, who is transgender, said he knew since he was 9 years old that he wanted to be a man. He said his father discouraged him and also disapproved of Klinthaworn, who is a single mother with an 18-year-old son.  Years of campaigning in Thailand has helped change his father’s mind, Thanomkhet said. “He doesn’t say he’s happy, but we can see from his action that he is now open about us,” he said. Members of the LGBTQ community walk on a rainbow carpet at a marriage registration event at Paragon shopping mall in Bangkok on Jan. 23, 2025. (LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA/AFP via Getty Images) Even though Anticha Sangchai and Vorawan Ramwan, a lesbian couple, formally got married Thursday, they have considered themselves married for nearly three years since they walked together in their wedding dresses in a 2022 pride parade in Bangkok. “We celebrated our couple, our marriage with our community. It was very exciting. But it was not legal,” Sangchai said. “Today is very different,” she said, adding she was “shocked” that the day had finally arrived. It’s not just in Bangkok where couples are rushing to get their marriages legally recognized. Ploy Rahong, 31, married her partner of three years, Natamon Sukjaroen, in front of about 300 guests at a sunset wedding on the beach in Koh Samui in October, the month after the marriage equality bill was approved by King Maha Vajiralongkorn and officially written into law. “We wanted to get married awhile already, and once they approved the law, we just went ahead with it,” said Ploy, who is Conner’s cousin. Ploy was celebrating again on Thursday at an event in Koh Samui, hosted by the Tourism Authority of Thailand and its local office, for couples who had already married to officially register their marriages. “It’s like a new beginning,” she said. Nat Sumon reported from Bangkok, Mithil Aggarwal from Hong Kong and Janis Mackey Frayer from Beijing. This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. 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