Mr Bangkok Pride 2007, photos courtesy Balcony Pub

Also news on the Bangkok Pride events in Soi 4 during the current celebrations from Balcony Pub's November newsletter.

PRIDE FESTIVAL 2007 ~ 3-11 November
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Bangkok Pride Festival 2007 kicks off on Saturday Night, 3rd November, in Silom Soi 4 with a Grand Pride Kick Off Party and the Mr. Pride Contest. Please come along to help get this yearтАЩs Pride off to a Grand Start and vote for your choice of Mr. Pride.You can see photos from last yearтАЩs Pride Festival at: http://www.balconypub.com/gallery.html/ ... ,year=2006 (http://www.balconypub.com/gallery.html/gallery=061105,year=2006)

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One of the highlights of Pride has always been The BalconyтАЩs Isaan Party and this year we are holding it on Thursday Night, 8th November.┬а Traditional North Eastern Thai Music and Dancing; Authentic Isaan Food and Drinks plus that Lucky Draw where you can win some unusual and possibly useful item of IsaanтАЩs┬а local handicrafts J┬а


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On the afternoon of Saturday 10th November in Lumpini Park sports hall there will be the traditional тАШNeedle MatchтАЩ of Volleyball between ourselves and our neighbours Telephone Pub.┬а The Balcony currently hold the trophy and we hope that with your support we will retain the cup for another year. Since all the Pride sports except the bowling have been cancelled, this will be your only chance to see on our Balcony sportsmen in action.┬а


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Since the traditional Pride parade has been cancelled, on Saturday 10 November Silom Soi 4 is hosting the тАЬSoi 4 Pride Night PartyтАЭ; a spectacular finale to this yearтАЩs Pride and it will feature a тАШMiss Jumbo ContestтАЩ.┬а This is a first for Soi 4 and the number of heavyweight contestant has already exceeded our wildest expectations.┬а The Soi will be very busy all night so please ensure you get here early for a good seat тАж the party will go on for most of the night.
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┬аFinally, on Sunday 11 November, there is the Pride Overtime Party тАж ┬аa relaxed night of Fun with customers and staff from all the bars taking part in a variety of sports and games.┬а There will be live entertainment from тАШEl DuoтАЩ - the heart throbs from the Philippines who have entertained us at The Balcony so often, plus an auction to boost the charity funds.
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The Balcony has always been an active supporter of local charities and as usual charity collections for The AIDS Temple in Lop Buri and nominated Pride Charities will be taking place during the week.┬а We ask you to think of those less fortunate than ourselves and give generously. These donations will be given directly to the charities concerned.┬а
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DonтАЩt forget to keep checking the new Silom Soi 4 website www.silomsoi4.net (http://www.silomsoi4.net)┬а┬а ┬аThere are photos from the Halloween Party and details of the new bars in the Soi.┬а In addition to details about the Soi 4 area there are contact details for all the bars and links to their websites. The Calendar Page shows you all the upcoming events in the Soi and there are several interesting items and event photos on the news page. http://www.silomsoi4.net/soi4news.html
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Once again, thank you to everyone who has visited us recently and we all look forward to seeing you again soon.
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Teddy Bear, appeal for Thai orphanages,- party to be held at Pattaya Boyztown on December 18th. Bears can be left at Balcony for transporting to the Boyztown picnic.

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Balcony photo galleries go back to 2004

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1609/8571041/15911717/286695280.jpg Looks so good I posted his photo twice. Who? What? Where? When? How? is he?

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Full listings of all Bangkok Pride events:

www.pridefestival.org (http://www.pridefestival.org) ( address correted thanks to fattmans advice )

Were all of those boys self-acknowledged homosexuals?

fattman, thanks for the correct address. I did look there and saw that their last post at the top of the page was August 21st so I thought it was an old site.

Now I see that they have the above photos posted on June9th 2007 for an event that took place on 3rd November 2007. Time travel can be so confusing!

[TrongpaiExpat]

I see they have jazzed up the Financial 2006 section with some nifty graphics. Still, 163,690B in Park Expenses? That's a lot for a few folding tables and some balloons. No wonder they are not having a Park event this year.

Oh, and those used coke bottles for the ring toss game, expensive!

I see they have jazzed up the Financial 2006 section with some nifty graphics. Still, 163,690B in Park Expenses? That's a lot for a few folding tables and some balloons. No wonder they are not having a Park event this year.

Oh, and those used coke bottles for the ring toss game, expensive!

From what IтАЩve heard the accounts are the crux of Pride's problem.
The accounts shown on the Pride website are a summary of 2006 income and expenditure. The detailed 2006 accounts published at the AGM are the main reason why Pride is such a pathetic event this year. Members are either not taking part or have reduced their subscriptions to the minimum because they consider that last yearтАЩs committee misused the money. Since the 2007 committee had many of last yearтАЩs big spenders on it at the outset, many members have raised the big finger.
When they were shown the accounts at the AGM there was an outcry from the members who saw that thousands of Baht from their subscription fees had been siphoned off to pay for the committeeтАЩs meals in bars owned by the committee members. Then they saw that the lesbians and katoeys had been given grants for taking part. Then there was a dispute over the charity money. And then тАж and then тАж
Apparently, someone put those original account documents on the web. Anyone know the link?

[TrongpaiExpat]

That link does not itemize the expenditures. That is not accounting, it's fancy foot work.

A simple balance sheet is all that is needed, not color pie charts and bar graphs.


Padlom, I heard the same stories and a few more, not sure what to believe.

[dab69]

thanks lots for the links. never vacationing at this time of year.

dunno how I have missed the balcony link up to now,
as the balcony was my second most favorite bar in bkk.

[krobbie]

What's your most favourite then?

Cheers
krobbie

The correct link for Bangkok Pride is www.pridefestival.org (http://www.pridefestival.org)

I wonder about that too.
The winner doesn't look gay at all.

Whatever, it dismays me somewhat that "gay pride" is represented by a meat rack of mostly straight young men being ogled by drooling old men. Is there nothing not quite so shallow to be proud of?

I feel rather positive about the current situation regarding Gay Pride in Thailand.

The annual event is now controlled by Thais and it seems to be quite well organized despite having cut out the event in the park and the parade.

The park event had potential but it was always so hot and the pool area was always 5 degrees hotter than outside. The main memory was the Dragoncastle's Sexy Swimming suit competition. It seems that the costs were massive and to move to other avenues was wise.

Pride parades can be great fun but what are they about? Is this the way we want the world to see as representative of the Gay Community? The Bangkok parade was always ruined by the authorities not stopping the traffic and by being held at twilight. Still so many people put in so much effort it's sad to see it not achieve it's potential. Pattaya has survived with no parade and it looks like Bangkok will have to also.

One of the problems with the Bangkok scene is that many of the gay venues are not owned by gay people and so do not support Pride. The farang owned gay establishments have always been more than ready to put effort and money into events.

The real new thing about Gay Pride in Thailand is that there are now several organizations making themselves heard, promoting Equality for Gays and transsexuals. The first major confrontation with commerce - Prempreeda v Nova Hotel Siam Square Disco - resulted in a resounding success thanks to the threat of worldwide boycott of Accor Hotels by gays. The Thai press coverage of that event was surprisingly good.

Pride parades can be great fun but what are they about? Is this the way we want the world to see as representative of the Gay Community?

No. Or was that a rhetorical question?

You may well be dismayed, and it is not supposed to be what Pride is all about ....

So what, in your humble opinion, should Pride be all about?
...... maybe it should be like this: WHAT PRIDE IS ALL ABOUT ? (http://www.seuss.org/pics/fsf03.html)

:geek:

[bkkguy]

So what, in your humble opinion, should Pride be all about?


some (maybe not so humble) Thai opinions:

Vitaya Saeng-aroon in The Nation (http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/11/03/lifestyle/lifestyle_30054727.php)

AYOR in The Nation Weekend (http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/11/02/entertainment/entertainment_30054679.php)

bkkguy

[Brad the Impala]

bkkguy, thanks for links to those articles. Worth reading.