Description
Thailand’s 2025 legalisation of same-sex marriage marks a pivotal shift in gender and sexual rights. Within this moment, I examine queer identities in the Thai armed forces, a domain shaped by militarised masculinity where male-only cadet academies and conscription serve as key sites for producing hegemonic masculinity and reinforcing binary gender hierarchies. My analysis focuses on openly gay men in two cohorts: compulsory-service conscripts and commissioned officers with cadet backgrounds. While institutional gestures such as endorsing openly gay conscripts and renaming the Military Wives Association to the Spouse Association signal progress, they remain largely performative. I argue that recognition is limited to temporary conscripts and excludes permanent officers embedded in cadet networks. The renaming of the association within a women-led space further reflects uncertainty about where structural change should begin. Consequently, openly gay officers navigate cultural and institutional pressures to embody hegemonic masculine ideals, narrowing accepted forms of gay identity. The absence of explicit support for these officers also underscores how militarised masculinity continues to constrain genuine inclusion, leaving the discursive terrain of gender within the Thai military rigid and resistant to transformative change.
