HUNDREDS of LGBT+ couples in Thailand were expected to make their wedded status legal today.

It was the day a law took effect granting them the same rights as heterosexual couples.

The enactment of the Marriage Equality Act makes Thailand the first country in south-east Asia and the second in Asia to legalise same-sex marriage, after Nepal. The breakaway Chinese province of Taiwan has also done so.

As many as 300 couples are expected to complete the formalities at a day-long gala celebration at a shopping mall in central Bangkok.

Hundreds more were predicted to register at district offices around the country. They included actors Apiwat “Porsch” Apiwatsayree and Sappanyoo “Arm” Panatkool, who tied the knot at the Phra Nakorn district office in central Bangkok.

“We can love, we love equally, legally,” said Mr Sappanyoo.

“And we can build our family in our own way because I believe that every kind of love, every kind of family is beautiful as it is,” his partner, Mr Apiwat said.

Activists said they hoped at least 1,448 same-sex marriages would take place today, in reference to the Civil and Commercial Code's article 1448.

The Thai government has said that it intends to grant full legal, financial and medical rights to LGBT+ couples.