Tiếng Việt
Table of Contents
1. What is same-sex marriage?
2. Is same-sex marriage recognized by Vietnamese law?
3. Does the law allow gender transformation?
1. What is same-sex marriage?
Currently, the law does not regulate the concept of same-sex marriage. This term appears when there are people who support or oppose the LGBT community (an abbreviation of nouns that characterize a person’s sexual orientation, including the words: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) regarding marital relations.
Same-sex marriage is understood as the marriage of two people of the same sex in a male-male or female-female relationship.
2. Is same-sex marriage recognized by Vietnamese law?
According to Article 8 of the 2014 Law on Marriage and Family, it is stipulated as follows:
“Article 8. Conditions for getting married
1. A man and a woman wishing to marry each other must satisfy the following conditions:
a/ The man is full 20 years or older, the woman is full 18 years or older;
b/ The marriage is voluntarily decided by the man and woman;
c/ The man and woman do not lose the civil act capacity;
d/ The marriage does not fall into one of the cases prescribed at Points a, b, c and d, Clause 2, Article 5 of this Law.
2. The State shall not recognize marriage between persons of the same sex.”
Based on the above provisions, marriage is the establishment of a husband and wife relationship by men and women to create a family. A legal marriage must comply with the provisions of the law. Therefore, same-sex couples currently living together are not prohibited by law but do not have a binding legal relationship.
3. Does the law allow gender transformation?
Pursuant to Article 37 of the 2015 Civil Code, it is stipulated as follows:
Article 37. Gender transformation
“Gender transformation is carried out in accordance with law. An individual whose gender has been transformed has the right and obligation to register civil status changes in accordance with the law on civil status; and has personal rights suitable to the transformed gender pursuant to provisions of this Code and other relevant laws”.
Therefore, currently, not all cases of gender transformation shall be re-issued with the documents. The transformation must be in accordance with the provisions of the law and then it is very difficult to change the personal information of a person who has undergone gender transformation.