Gaybutton

Hedda has always maintained his anonymity and privacy. Unless Hedda chooses to let people know why he has discontinued posting or why, apparently at his own request, the "Hedda's Hopper" forum has been locked, I have a feeling all anybody is going to be able to do is guess.

I'm trying to prevent these posts from misleading people new to Thailand and getting themselves into trouble. Quoting the law is not much help when in reality it just doesn't work that way. Don't forget that Thailand is a guilty unless proven innocent country. Anyone who gets sexually involved with someone under the age of 18 is placing himself at great risk of arrest, prosecution, and prison time, not to mention the huge cost of getting yourself out of trouble if you can get out of it at all. But if you're arrested you can always start quoting the law to the police. I'm sure they'll listen to you . . . all the way downtown. The bottom line is very simple. Forget about the age of consent laws. It's not going to help you one bit if you are caught engaging in sex with someone under 18 years old. The age of consent laws are fine if it happens to be two young people having sex with each other. But does anyone truly think a Thai judge is going to believe that a 50+ year old farang and a 15, 16, or 17 year old boy were having sex without money or prostitution being involved? Good luck with that one. You'll need it. Another little thing . . . the age of consent laws are not the only laws that apply. Many farang, for example, have been charged with taking a minor without the consent of the parents. That's a serious crime in Thailand too and is viewed by the courts much the same as kidnapping. Fortunately, though, in many cases the charges are dropped if you can come to a suitable financial arrangement with the family that they will accept. Let's see, how much was that fully furnished new house, new car, and water buffalo? And don't forget the large flat screen TV. Do what you want folks, but that's quite a set of risks just so that you can have a real nice cum that lasts a few seconds. Take Viagra first. That way, maybe your cum will last a little longer. It will be a very pleasant memory when you start getting those midnight conjugal visits from some big grotesque oaf you don't want one from. You have no problem if the boy is at least 18 years old. If he is younger than 18 you are placing yourself at risk. Go ahead. Have sex with a 15 year old if you want to. Personally, if you really do I think you're nuts. If you're caught, when you have to face the consequences you can't say I didn't do my best to warn you.

I hope you're not trying to convince people that sex with a 15, 16, or 17 year old is perfectly ok. It isn't. On a technical level you may be right, but on a practical level if a farang gets caught involved sexually with a boy of those ages, he's had it. Do you disagree?

You're right. I misread his post.

Yesterday afternoon I tried Camfrog. I wasn't on there more than 5 minutes when a young gentleman, who just happened to be very much my type, chimed in. His English was good and it turned out he is a massage boy at one of the local gay massage places. It also turns out that he lives only a few minutes from my place. I'll be meeting him early this afternoon. Thank you again, guys, for making it clear how to use Camfrog. Anyone else want to ask me why I love living here so much . . . ?

"Only little people pay taxes." - Leona Helmsley I can think of many adjectives to describe GT, but 'little' wouldn't be one of them. Bars that have free munchies, but not the kind I like. Bars with grumpy customers. Bars that let me come in. "I don't want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member." - Groucho Marx

Don't leave us in suspense. What happened when you pointed out that you received only 30 minutes and you're not going to pay for 90 minutes?

The only safe age of consent for a foreigner is if the boy is 18 years old, or older. The tip amount is your personal choice. If the boy stays with you for only one or two hours, which we refer to as "short time," I recommend giving him 1000 baht as a tip. If he stays overnight with you, which we refer to as "long time," then I recommend 1500 baht as a tip. Some may agree with me. Some may argue that my recommendation is not enough or is too much, but the boys will be happy with those amounts.

I also don't understand why the FBI would have been involved. Without some sort of explanation to make sense of it, that's the latest item on my "I Don't Get It" list. Until now I never knew that my tax dollar was working to help arrest citizens of one country committing crimes in another country, neither of which is the USA. Maybe the USA really does want to become the police of the entire world. There must be some reason why the FBI was involved. I would like to know the reason.

Here's a question for you. On Gay Romeo, and several other personals sites, many of the Thai boys use ZA as a part of their user name. "Pattaya-ZA." What does ZA mean? I can't find the answer to that anywhere.

Now you know what to get me for Christmas. Don't worry, I can wait . . .

When it comes to this kind of matter, I'm not the man in the know. I'm the man in the I don't know. What I think is that it will turn out that you're wrong and this guy will spend a lot of years in prison. My reasoning is this wasn't a typical Sunee Plaza raid in which the local constabulary arrests the mama-san and mama is back to work the next night. This involved investigation, the involvement of at least two international police agencies and his embassy. I don't think this is going to be another 'hand over a big chunk of change to the police and see you later.' I think this guy is gone and I don't think he's going to see the light of day again until he's had a lot more birthdays. What I hope is this scares the shit out of the bar owners who hire under-age boys and the buses will soon be crammed with the under-age set heading back to the rice farm for at least two or three years. What do I think the odds are that it really will happen that way? Somewhere between zero and none.

I don't know. Who do you want me to ask? Would you want to trade places with him? Ok, you've convinced me. Now convince the judge.

That's right. We don't. Guilty or not, this is the first time since Boys Studio that I can remember truly serious action taken directly against a bar owner. I think most of us are aware of the problem about under-age bar boys in Sunee Plaza. Maybe this arrest has at least a chance of sending a clear message to the bar owners who continue to employ under-age boys. It's one thing when the bars get closed for a period of time. It's quite another when the owners themselves are criminally charged and can look forward to the Bangkok Hilton. The problems in Sunee Plaza won't go away until the bars stop hiring under-age boys and it ought to be perfectly obvious by now that the bar owners aren't going to stop voluntarily. If you truly believe that the age of consent should be an age less than 18, then I suggest trying to do something to try getting the powers-that-be to change the current statutes. Until then it looks like bar owners may finally have to face the real possibility of serious consequences for their actions. Personally, in this day and age I don't see any reason why the age of consent shouldn't be 16 or 17 years old, but since the age is 18, hiring boys younger than that creates a lot of problems for everyone. At the moment, Thailand is seriously considering legalizing prostitution. I think that is a step in the right direction. If this kind of crackdown can serve to start eliminating the under-age problem, then the reputation as a haven for pedophiles that stigmatizes all of us may start going away too.

The following appears in THE NATION: _____ French Man Arrested for Allegedly Offering Underage Sex Service in Pattaya Pattaya, Chon Buri - Police Wednesday arrested a French man for allegedly providing boys under 18 for sex services. Jean Eric Lopez, 47, was arrested inside Soi Sunee Plaza in Bang Lamung district. Police were alerted by officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation to arrest Lopez. The FBI officials informed the Thai police that Lopez had been allegedly offering underage sex services to foreigners at his bar. __________ And this, from the PATTAYA DAILY NEWS: _____ French Paedophile Arrested In Pattaya Selling Child Sex A combined force from Thailand's Department of Special Investigation (DSI) and local police in this coastal province late Tuesday night arrested a French businessman who runs many entertainment venues in the seaside resort of Pattaya on charge of sexually abusing child and providing child sex for his customers. Chon-Buri, the 25th of January 2010 [TNA]: French national Jean Eric Lopez, 47, was arrested after the DSI’s Bureau of Foreign Affairs and Transnational Crime was informed by representatives of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Thailand and French national police based at the French Embassy in Thailand that Mr Lopez used to run entertainment venues which offered boy sex trade for hire and the accused himself had sexually abused children. According to the investigation, the DSI officials found that Mr Lopez is a shareholder in several entertainment venues for homosexuals in Pattaya, which provide children aged between 12 and 20 year-old to the customers. The Pattaya Court issued an arrest warrant of Mr Lopez on Tuesday and he was arrested hours later. The DSI operation officials also impounded a number of gay sex CDs and condoms. The French national has been charged with taking indecent liberties with children aged under 18-years-old despite having the child’s consent. The accused denied the charges and was later taken to Pattaya for further questioning. (TNA)

Mad Jack: "You tell no one!" Horton: "I swear before God." Mad Jack: "I said noooo one!" - Ray Walston and Tom Ligon, 'Paint Your Wagon'

Those are choices you're making. I hope you never have to pay the price for your security choices. As far as it being rude to be seen placing your valuables into your safe, what's the rude part? Rude that the boy might think you don't trust him? You can avoid that 'rudeness' by placing your valuables in your safe before you even go out. When you do go out, carry only what you anticipate needing to have with you. If I am planning to bring a boy back, before I ever go out I place the amount I intend to tip him where he won't see it, but will prevent me from having him see where I keep my wallet. My valuables are hidden away before I go out. I do that even if I'm not anticipating bringing someone back with me. You never know . . . I like surprises. The boy never sees my valuables and never sees my wallet. If he wants to search while I'm in the shower, fine with me. I can shower for an hour if I want to. He'll still be trying to figure out where I hid my stuff. If he looks hard enough, the only thing he might find is the money for the tip I planned to give him anyway. You know how I prevent a boy from stealing my mobile phone while I'm in the shower? I take it into the bathroom with me. I do that even when I'm home alone. 9 times out of 10, if I'm going to receive a phone call, it's going to be while I'm in the shower. Also, if I have a fall and hurt myself, the phone is right there to call for help. If you're afraid the mobile phone will get soaked, plan ahead. Before you go out, stash a plastic bag in the bathroom and put the phone in it while you're in there. Now your phone won't get wet. Personally, I'd much rather have a boy think I'm rude than think I'm stupid.

If you're looking for a less expensive place in Chiang Mai, I like Come-On Place. It's a garden room setting, with surprisingly large rooms, the quality of which would be about what you would expect at Howard's. It's gay owned and gay staffed. There are no problems about bringing someone to your room. It's 800 baht per night. They do have breakfast, but I didn't like it. http://www.comeonplace.net

That's just one among many attributes that I find so attractive about Thai boys. Most of them are quite smooth and when they get older they stay that way.

The following appears on E-Online: _____ Pernell Roberts, Star of TV's Bonanza, Trapper John M.D., Dead Pernell Roberts, who became a small-screen staple as Adam Cartwright in Bonanza and later as the title character in the M*A*S*H spinoff Trapper John, M.D., has died. He was 81. His wife, Eleanor Criswell, told the Los Angeles Times that Roberts passed away Sunday at the couple's home in Malibu after losing a battle with cancer. Funeral services were set for today. Born May 18, 1928, in Georgia, Roberts served in the Marines before getting the acting bug. He won a Drama Desk Award in 1955 for an off-Broadway version of Macbeth and then had a few TV appearances before landing his career-making role of the eldest Cartwright boy on NBC's Bonanza, one of TV's all-time most popular Westerns. The show even allowed Roberts to show off his vocal chops, with him recording a series of folk tunes that were later included on the Bonanza box set. Roberts exited the Ponderosa after six seasons following a dispute with producers. He bounced around as a guest star on some of the biggest shows of the 1970s (Mission: Impossible, The Odd Couple, The Hardy Boys) before scoring a second-act success as the affable lead in CBS' Trapper John, M.D. He took over the role played on the M*A*S*H TV series by Wayne Rogers

Why is it that so many men have no problem growing hair everywhere else on their bodies, but can't grow it on the one place they want it most . . . on top of their heads? I too prefer smooth rather than hairy, but there have been occasional exceptions. "Oh, I don't like Gauls. Hairy!" - Peter Ustinov, 'Spartacus'

Don't be. I'm glad you started this thread. You probably saved many from experiencing similar losses. Yes, for 20 years you have been fortunate, but then it finally happened. A 30,000 baht telephone is an expensive item to lose to theft by anyone's standards, not to mention the additional 30,000 baht replacement cost. If you are wealthy enough to consider that a minor loss, congratulations, but I think most of us would consider it to be much more than a minor loss. Others are starting to post about their own experiences now, including those who were confident they could trust the boy based on longevity of their relationship without ever having had a problem. The whole point of this thread is to remind people not to assume that you know any of these boys well enough to fully trust that he won't give into temptation. Firecat69 was lucky that all he lost was a telephone. I think most of us who have been on these message boards for any length of time are fully aware of some of the real horror stories that sometimes occur in which the farang victim suffered serious major losses. The sad part is that so many of these kinds of losses are easily preventable if you simply take common sense precautions and abandon the assumption that the boy you are currently with won't steal from you if he gets the chance.

That's great if your place happens to have a security guard. Whether there is a security guard or not, your first line of defense is yourself. It's nice if there is a security guard and the boy can leave his ID card with him, but ultimately it's everyone's responsibility to take their own precautions.

Ex-Panama Dictator Loses High Court Appeal By Bill Mears, CNN Supreme Court Producer January 25, 2010 Washington (CNN) -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned away the imprisoned former leader of Panama in his effort to fight pending extradition to France to face money-laundering charges. The justices were Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega's last legal hope, and their refusal to intervene likely clears the way for his overseas transfer. The onetime dictator of the Central American nation remains behind bars in a federal prison in Miami, Florida. He had been scheduled for release two years ago after his 1992 conviction on cocaine trafficking, racketeering and money-laundering charges, but France also has sought to try him on similar charges in that country. Noriega's attorneys argued that under international law, his status as a prisoner of war should mean he can immediately return home to Panama or another country. Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia dissented from the court's decision to stay out of the Noriega case. A federal appeals court in Atlanta, Georgia, six months ago refused his petition for habeas corpus, noting a 2006 federal law does not allow Noriega to invoke the Geneva Conventions "as a source of rights" to demand his release from custody. Those treaties deal in part with repatriation of POWs after hostilities end. Representing the 73-year-old Noriega, attorneys Frank Rubino and Jonathan May said that lower court ruling "undermines protections that apply not only to prisoners of war in the United States but to our own men and women who find themselves prisoners of war of other nations." U.S. forces removed the ex-dictator from office during Operation Nifty Package, the 1989 invasion of Panama. Noriega had fled his offices and tried to seek sanctuary in the Vatican Embassy in Panama City. U.S. troops set up large speakers around the compound, blaring music at all hours, a psychological ploy to rattle the general. He eventually surrendered on January 3, 1990, and was quickly escorted to the United States for civilian trial. After his drug conviction, Noriega was given POW status. His federal sentence, originally for 30 years, ended in September 2007 after time off for good behavior. But months earlier, the United States agreed to send Noriega to France. The Justice Department had ordered him held pending the resolution of his appeals. The Military Commissions Act of 2006 prohibits anyone -- including U.S. citizens -- from going to federal courts and using treaties to secure their release or to block an extradition. The final decision on when Noriega leaves the United States will rest with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Panama also has sought their former leader's extradition, but the United States has not honored that request.

I think we're getting caught up in an irrelevant tangent here. The point of this thread is not to determine the difference between a genuine and counterfeit telephone. The fact that this incident even involved a telephone is irrelevant. It doesn't matter what was stolen. The point, I believe, Firecat69 is trying to make is that you need to take precautions against theft of any kinds of valuables, even with boys you have come to trust. When you become complacent, you also become a potential victim. That's the point of this thread, isn't it? If you want to have a discussion about telephones and what is or is not genuine, I suggest starting a thread devoted to that subject.