December 6th, 2007, 16:57
The Men of Thailand, 6th edition, Floating Lotus Communications 1997
Bars, Cocktail, Lounges, Host Bars
The gay bar familiar to the Western man can be found at Pubs. In Thailand a 'gay bar' is a host bar. Upon entering a Thai 'gay bar' the customer is seated, served a drink, and, instead of cruising other customers, can ask to meet one of the young men employed there to entertain customers - a host - and who can be taken "off" for sex.
I wasn't always like this. In the late 1950s or early 1960s the Thai who owned the former Rome Club Disco opened the first bar for homosexual men. It was a place to dance and meet like minded friends. The soon after came the famous "Sea Hag," which provided drinks, dancing and a decade of gay romances. Inspired by "Sea Hag", a twenty-year-old tailor, named Nuwat, from southern Thailand, opened Tulip Bar in 1968. His bar was the oldest in Thailand, but after moving to a new location in 1991, sadly closed in 1992. The original, simple, bar only had a juke box for dancing, yet for the next twenty-four years business flourished.
In 1965 or 1966 Twighlight was opened by a drag queen Khun Yosawadee who had previously opened a house with boys in the early 1960s. It opened where Barbiery is now and was modeled on the female go-go bars in nearby Patpong. The bar employed go-go boys and was the first bar to have off-boys and even had sex shows, thought this was, and still is, illegal.
Two factors crushed the cruise-style gay bar as a meeting place for homosexuals. First, a 1978 law forbade dancing in entertainment facilities without a license, which was nearly impossible to obtain. This forced Tulip and other bars to switch to go-go boys and the off system. Second, customers liked the off system. Khun Nuwat, now in his fifties explained "The guys at the off bars didn't reject you".
More than thirty years after Thailand's first gay bar opened the Kingdom now has well over 100 bars, saunas, restaurants and discos. However, compared with the establishments that serve heterosexuals, the gay scene is only a miniscule part of the total sex trade. Straight ,massage parlours and brothels can be found in most cities and even villages nationwide. Reasonable official estimates are that 250,000 to 500,000 women work in the trade. Our estimate, based on gay business reportage, is that about 3000 men work in gay oriented sex businesses.*
*This estimate is likely to have been overstated because many owners assumed that the more hosts they reported the better"
The Men of Thailand now out of print
I was interested to read this history as it differed from what I had in mind. The article is informative but questions arise like what was the name of the bar opened by the owner of Rome Club and what was the name of Khun Yosawadee's 'house with boys' and where were those places?
Bars, Cocktail, Lounges, Host Bars
The gay bar familiar to the Western man can be found at Pubs. In Thailand a 'gay bar' is a host bar. Upon entering a Thai 'gay bar' the customer is seated, served a drink, and, instead of cruising other customers, can ask to meet one of the young men employed there to entertain customers - a host - and who can be taken "off" for sex.
I wasn't always like this. In the late 1950s or early 1960s the Thai who owned the former Rome Club Disco opened the first bar for homosexual men. It was a place to dance and meet like minded friends. The soon after came the famous "Sea Hag," which provided drinks, dancing and a decade of gay romances. Inspired by "Sea Hag", a twenty-year-old tailor, named Nuwat, from southern Thailand, opened Tulip Bar in 1968. His bar was the oldest in Thailand, but after moving to a new location in 1991, sadly closed in 1992. The original, simple, bar only had a juke box for dancing, yet for the next twenty-four years business flourished.
In 1965 or 1966 Twighlight was opened by a drag queen Khun Yosawadee who had previously opened a house with boys in the early 1960s. It opened where Barbiery is now and was modeled on the female go-go bars in nearby Patpong. The bar employed go-go boys and was the first bar to have off-boys and even had sex shows, thought this was, and still is, illegal.
Two factors crushed the cruise-style gay bar as a meeting place for homosexuals. First, a 1978 law forbade dancing in entertainment facilities without a license, which was nearly impossible to obtain. This forced Tulip and other bars to switch to go-go boys and the off system. Second, customers liked the off system. Khun Nuwat, now in his fifties explained "The guys at the off bars didn't reject you".
More than thirty years after Thailand's first gay bar opened the Kingdom now has well over 100 bars, saunas, restaurants and discos. However, compared with the establishments that serve heterosexuals, the gay scene is only a miniscule part of the total sex trade. Straight ,massage parlours and brothels can be found in most cities and even villages nationwide. Reasonable official estimates are that 250,000 to 500,000 women work in the trade. Our estimate, based on gay business reportage, is that about 3000 men work in gay oriented sex businesses.*
*This estimate is likely to have been overstated because many owners assumed that the more hosts they reported the better"
The Men of Thailand now out of print
I was interested to read this history as it differed from what I had in mind. The article is informative but questions arise like what was the name of the bar opened by the owner of Rome Club and what was the name of Khun Yosawadee's 'house with boys' and where were those places?