Hundreds of LGBTQ couples tied the knot in Thailand on Thursday as the country's marriage equality law came into effect, becoming the first country or region in Southeast Asia to legalize same-sex marriage and the third in Asia after Taiwan and Nepal.

More than 100 couples tied the knot in a mass ceremony at a shopping mall in central Bangkok on Thursday.

“We are so happy that the Thai people here. now they can express their love in public and they can be accepted around the world,” Ruchaya Nilikan, 45, who got married at the ceremony, told CBS News partner BBC News. “It means the world to us… We had to fight hard to have today.”

One couple getting married said they waited 13 years, while another said they waited 17 years.

“Every love is the same, every love is the same inside,” Porsche Apivatseiri told Sky News that she and her partner got engaged 11 years ago.

“Today I am particularly excited that we will have a law that will protect us both,” Chanatip Sirihirunchai told the BBC.

“Our next official plan is to change my documents because I have registered him as my brother. Now I can officially call him my husband,” Sirihiruncha's new wife Pisit told the British network.

“I want Thailand to be a country that inspires our neighbors ASEAN to open the doors to freedom for all mankind,” newly married 43-year-old Sethapas Na Thalang told the BBC.

Thailand has long been seen as more accepting of LGBTQ people than neighboring countries.In June last year, its senate passed the landmark marriage equality bill. The bill replaced the gender-specific terms of Thailand's marriage legislation with gender-neutral terms, writes The Guardian newspaper.

Activists on Thursday praised the new marriage law as a good first step, but said other reforms were needed to offer better protections to LGBTQ couples, Fortify Rights campaigner Mukdapa Yangyuenpradorn told The Guardian said changes are still needed in the country's civil and commercial codes.

“In the eyes of the law, the man is still recognized as the father and the woman as the mother,” Youngenpradorn said, meaning that one parent of a same-sex couple will not have a legal relationship with their child.