The kingdom’s first queer-gendered candidate elected to the House of Representatives was discouraged today but not giving up after losing a bid to establish a gender diversity panel.

“Are those 7 million people not human? The fact that [LGBT individuals] struggle financially and cannot land good jobs because of discrimination, or that we don’t have the right to make own decisions regarding our futures, including family planning, like the rest of the society, is an important crisis that greatly affects our lives.”

Tanwarin “Golf” Sukkhapisit, who broke down in tears following Friday’s 365-to-101 defeat of a motion to establish a permanent LGBT-affairs committee, told Coconuts Bangkok this morning that next up is full legal recognition of marriage between same-sex couples.

“Of course I’m sad that we were unable to win this fight because setting up the committee was one of the reasons I joined the parliament,” the 45-year-old Future Forward Party lawmaker said Monday. Tanwarin said that designating an LGBT rights team would have been the “first time in Thai history” that gender diverse individuals had a place in the kingdom’s laws.

Although Friday saw the motion handily rejected, it won the support of a handful of non-Future Forward legislators, mostly from the Thai Liberal, Pheu Thai and Democrat parties.

“It means that LGBT needs are not totally neglected in parliament, and that we are gaining understanding as well as more support from people,” said Tanwarin, who prefers the gender-neutral pronoun “they.”

Still, Tanwarin went into Friday believing the votes were there. Afterward, Tanwarin cried during a news conference, saying LGBT rights affects more than 7 million people in Thai society. Read more via Coconuts