Gaybutton

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VARrtve2VKs

The best I can find is on their web site. Of course, your guess is as good as mine as to when their web site was last updated, but here's the link: http://www.truecorp.co.th/tha/promotion/pr...ispeed8mbps.jsp Just under the bright red TRUE logo, upper left of your screen, you'll see where to click over to English.

That seems like a satisfactory outcome to me. That's a lot more than most people get under similar circumstances. In Thailand, the worst thing you can do is to lose your temper and start carrying on, even if you have been intentionally wronged. It's not going to solve anything and will most likely make a bad situation even worse.

It's not exactly a secret that many bars do this. Ultimately, it is the responsibility of the person taking a boy off to check his ID card. While it would be nice to allow people to post the names of bars that do this, as I said I'm not going to allow it. From among all the moderators on this board, I'm the only one residing permanently in Thailand and the only person who would be in serious jeopardy is me. Well, very sorry folks, but I'm not going to place myself in legal jeopardy. Considering that there has never been a case in which a farang was arrested when taking a boy off from a bar, no matter what the boy's age was, I'd say the risks to people posting on this board are a little on the minimal side. On the other hand, people are asking me to not only place myself at legal risk, but you are also asking me to break Thai libel laws. I'm willing to do neither.

It's on my "I Don't Get It" list too. Why didn't he get out while the getting was good? Obviously he knew he was committing a serious crime. One would think he would have had an escape route planned ages ago. Perhaps he did, but maybe things happened so quickly he didn't see it coming and thought he still had time. Just think, he could have gotten together with Thaksin and the two of them could have literally bought a country somewhere. If they had opened some good gay venues I might even have visited. The only thing that makes any sense to me, and it doesn't make much, is he may have been convinced that nothing would happen to him. Often major criminals think that they're somehow immune to consequences. Al Capone comes to mind. He easily could have gotten out, even when he was still on trial. There have been many cases when super rich criminals could have easily escaped, but didn't.

That's a reasonable question. The two main reasons it's not allowed on this board are because there have been problems before when someone who had a personal grudge against a venue either grossly exaggerated the problem or even just made something up. The second reason is Thai libel laws. Naming the venue subjects to board owner and the moderators to the possibility of libel suits. Under Thai law, if you post something that hurts a business, that's libel, even when what was posted is entirely true and can be proved. As much as I would like to allow people to post what they want when they feel they have been wronged by a venue and as much as the probability of actually being sued by the venue is remote, it's still a risk I'm not willing to take and I'm not going to allow people to subject me to that risk. There is no problem about posting what occurred, but I have to ask that the names be left out of it. For example, I'd love to name every bar that hires under-age boys. I've been asked to do that in the past, but I won't do it and have never done it because of these bizarre Thai libel laws. The bottom line is that in most cases the incidents people post about could just as easily have happened at other venues. By posting about the incident itself, that serves to warn others about the kinds of things that potentially can happen no matter where you go. I think the warning is much more important than naming the venue. The incident reported by greg_is_normal could have happened, and has happened, at several different bars, both in Bangkok and Pattaya. The most important part of his post is the warning to carefully check ID cards. You would want to heed that warning in any bar in Thailand. The warning is much more important than the name of the venue. The name of the actual venue in which this particular incident ocurred is superfluous.

I have room in my car for three passengers of farang size, which means I could get you there, but if you find someone you want to bring back to your hotel, you would need to get back to the hotel by taxi, unless of course the boys would be amenable to being tied to the roof of the car. But I'll do it if you really want to do it.

I agree with RichLB. If it would do you any good to go back and raise hell, that's what our advice would be, but it won't do you any good and it could actually backfire on you. So, my advice is to do just as RichLB says . . . forget about it, chalk it up to experience, and take your glasses with you next time and make sure about the ID.

That is correct. You can also just have a taxi take you. Of course not. As I said, just have a taxi take you. You can have the driver cruise around or you can exit the taxi, go around on foot, and take another taxi when you find your evening roommate. Just make sure he has his ID card. Besides, even if you have a car, unless you are quite familiar with Bangkok streets and/or have a GPS, you're not going to find it anyhow. So, go by taxi. As I said, make me the right offer and I'll take you myself. However, it's one thing for me to spend hours of my time helping someone get his driver's license locally. It's quite another to ask me to drive people to Bangkok and then chauffeur them around Saranrom Park, not to mention bringing them back to Pattaya. If anyone really wants me to do that, I'm perfectly willing, but you're covering my fuel, tolls, hotel, meals, and you're filling my fuel tank upon return to Pattaya. And if we're unfortunate enough to get stopped by a cop, you're covering the cost of the traffic ticket too. I think that's reasonable. If anyone wants to take me up on it, you know where to find me . . . Here are those old threads: http://www.gaythailand.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=3205 http://www.gaythailand.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=2928 http://www.gaythailand.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=399 http://www.gaythailand.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1029

I take pity on him. I think he should be set free after he serves half the sentence . . . If he dies in his cell, I think they ought to string him up in the cell and leave him there: "He'll hang there till he rots!" - Charles McGraw (Marcellus), 'Spartacus'

Another one of my favorites! Sheeeesh! They're dropping like flies.

As far as I know, the banks are going to be closed only on Tuesday.

Make me the right offer and I probably will. If it was dangerous, I wouldn't go. It's not dangerous at all. I have never had a problem of any kind around there and I've never heard of anyone who has. That includes when I have parked the car and walked. Maybe you wouldn't visit a park in the US at night, but this ain't the US. Besides, you don't actually enter the park at all. The boys are all waiting on the sidewalks surrounding the park. Any time after 9:00pm is when it usually starts getting good. This is not the first time we've had threads about this on this board. Some of the previous threads are a year or two old, but the information hasn't changed at all. Just use our Search function, type in Saranrom, and the threads will come up. Believe me, none of what we're saying on this thread is embellished or exaggerated at all. It's all true. I'm surprised more people haven't made their way out there to give it a try for themselves. I'm sure most of you are well aware that HeyGay and I have had our past disputes, but I can tell you he is entirely correct on this thread. If anything, he actually understated this time. GT has been out there too. He's on that bike trip now, but I'll bet if he gets a chance and sees this thread, he'll also be telling you the same thing HeyGay and I are telling you. I've also heard there are other good cruise areas in Bangkok, but I've never investigated.

I wouldn't want to be anywhere near one of those primitive devices if it ever goes off. Meanwhile, I still don't get it. What are they trying to do? I hope they're not crazy enough to actually use any weapons like that. I hope they're not crazy enough to do anything at all other than make their threats, but who knows how nuts those people really might be? I'm no war monger, but I wouldn't have any objections to seeing them invaded and that idiotic government of theirs overthrown.

You can still see many of her songs and even some episodes of "My Little Margie" on You Tube.

In all honesty, and interestingly enough, it doesn't . . . at least not in the sense of specific cruise areas similar to Bangkok. Most likely that's because Pattaya simply does not have the population of boys, university students, and military boys in numbers anywhere near the numbers in Bangkok. Also, don't forget that the Saranrom Park-Grand Palace area is cruised primarily by Thais looking for boys. Only very few farang are going to be found cruising there, which probably accounts for the reasons why the boys in those areas ask for only 500 baht. You can bet that gay Thais aren't going to the bars and paying the kinds of prices farang pay. Of course, the boys will go just as happily with farang. In Pattaya, your best bet for cruising is still the beach, although I'm talking about during the day. It can get dangerous down there during the night and there are not many available boys there at night anymore. During the late afternoon to early evening, a lot of boys can be seen in the Tuk Com area, but they're not specifically cruising, although most would readily go with you if approached. Other than that, except for a few boys walking the streets in the Sunee Plaza area and the streets between Sunee Plaza, Pattayaland, Soi Day-Night and Walking Street there's really nothing at all similar to Bangkok in that respect. After 1:00am, when the bars close, many of the boys go to get something to eat in the Wat Chai area, but again they are not really specifically cruising. In other words, Pattaya is a completely different story from Bangkok when trying to find boys literally lining up to be cruised.

Here's what La Cage has for you during July:

That's exactly what I dislike about organized religion and the clueless fanatics who think they are somehow experts about how others ought to live. Guess what, lady . . . I'm not interested. I'll decide for myself how to live, thank you very much. Until you can prove what you're shooting your mouth off about, why don't you just shut the hell up? There is absolutely no evidence of any kind that shows being the child of gay parents is in any way detrimental . . . except, of course, being victimized and persecuted by homophobic bigots.

TV Sitcom Pioneer Gale Storm Dies By Alan Duke CNN LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Gale Storm, whose acting and singing talents earned her three stars on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, died Saturday, according to a Danville, California nursing facility where she was a patient. Storm was 87. Storm got her first movie contract, a stage name and a husband when she won a radio talent show in Hollywood at the age of 17. Her first TV show -- "My Little Margie" -- set the sitcom stage with Lucille Ball and other female stars in the 1950s, said Skip E. Lowe, a longtime friend who acted in some of Storm's first movies in the early 1940s. "She was a wonderful singer," said Lowe. "She started as a singer and became known as an actress and singer." Born Josephine Owaissa Cottle in Bloomington, Texas, in 1922, she entered and won a CBS Radio talent show that offered a grand prize of a one-year movie contract with RKO Studio, according to her personal biography. She teamed up with the male winner, Lee Bonnell, whom she married and had four children with. The couple remained married for 45 years until his death in 1986. "We fell deeply in love and were married two years later, just as soon as my mother would allow it!" she wrote. The new name Gale Storm was also part of the prize, she said. Lowe, who interviewed her several times in recent decades on his cable TV show, said Storm was open about her bout with alcoholism. "She was battling that bottle," Lowe said. Storm wrote about her alcoholism on her official Web site: "My successes have certainly not been without problems. During the 1970s I experienced a terribly low and painful time of dealing with alcoholism. I had Lee's unfailing support through the entire ordeal. My treatment and recovery were more than rugged." Storm said she was "fully recovered for more than 20 years." She also chronicled her alcoholism battle in an autobiography published in 1980 and titled "I Ain't Down Yet." Her work in movies in the 1940s when she starred in dozens of B-movies -- mostly Westerns -- was great preparation when television became big in the early 1950s, she said. Her first TV series, "My Little Margie" was a radio show transferred to TV as a summer replacement for "I Love Lucy" in 1952. "I was overwhelmed by the immediate success of it," she said. "During the next four years, millions of people saw the 126 episodes of 'Margie' on TV and listened to separate, live episodes on network radio," Storm said. Her next sitcom was "The Gale Storm Show: Oh! Susanna," airing from 1956 until 1960. Storm played the social director on a cruise ship. Along with film, radio and TV, Storm recorded several top-10 pop hits for Dot Records in the 1950s. "I was thrilled when my very first record, 'I Hear You Knockin' ,' sold over a million copies and won for me the coveted 'gold' record," she wrote. "After that, my hit records included 'Dark Moon,' 'Ivory Tower,' 'Teen Age Prayer,' and 'Memories Are Made Of This .'" Her three Hollywood Walk of Fame stars are for recording, radio and television, according to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. She acted in a few TV episodes in the 1980s, including "The Love Boat" and "Murder She Wrote." Storm married Paul Masterson in 1988 after Bonnell died. Her second husband died in 1996.

Thai banks always close on July 1 for a mid-year accounting day. This year is no exception. All banks in Thailand will be closed Wednesday, this week. ATMs will be working, but if you are expecting an international money transfer, you won't get it until Thursday, July 2. The banks will close again on Tuesday, July 7 for Asarnha Bucha Day.

Whether you do or not, you didn't make up this one. Every bit of what you wrote is all absolutely true and correct and I know that from personal experience. Again, many farang make a mistake by viewing these boys through western-cultured eyes. These boys don't see themselves as slutty prostitutes (and neither do I). They see what they're doing as simply a way of making some additional money. It's not a bad way to do it. They work whatever hours they choose without having to spend 8 to 12 hours a day working their butts off to make peanuts at a 7-Eleven or something. It's a way of supplementing their income from other jobs, making money to pay school tuition, pay their room rent, or just a way to make some pocket money when they don't have much else to do. Some nights they make money and some nights they don't, but apparently they think the odds are in their favor because there are sure plenty of them out there most of the time. I've met several this way and every one of them have been very nice, honest, and seemed to truly enjoy their time with their 'customer.' Some are gay and some are not, but the ones I've met are very good at what they do and generally are much more sophisticated and better educated than the average bar boy. Many farangs think the way to spend their evenings in Bangkok is to go to the bars, having their eardrums blasted out by excessively loud music volume, spending hundreds and hundreds of baht paying rip-off prices for drinks while being high-pressured by the street touts and mama-sans, paying exorbitant off fees, and paying 1000 to 1500 baht more in tips for the bar boys. If you enjoy that, wonderful, but not me. I haven't been to a Bangkok bar in years and I'm not planning to go to any of them when I'm in Bangkok. I don't enjoy them and I can think of a lot better things to do with my money than wasting it in the Bangkok bars. If I'm looking for a boy at night I'll be out there around the Saranrom Park-Grand Palace vicinity. I have a feeling if more farang would give it a try, HeyGay and I will have company. And before anyone starts calling me cheap, that 500 baht is what the boys out there ask for. If they were asking for more, I'd pay it. Sometimes I do anyway.

'Gayby Boom': Children of Gay Couples Speak Out By John Blake CNN CNN -- Jesse Levey is a Republican activist who says he believes in family values, small government and his lesbian mothers' right to marry. Levey is part of the "gayby boom" generation. The 29-year-old management consultant is the son of a lesbian couple who chose to have a child through artificial insemination. He's their only child. Critics of same-sex marriage say people such as Levey will grow up shunned and sexually confused. Yet he says he's a "well-adjusted heterosexual" whose upbringing proves that love, not gender, makes a family. "You can imagine what my parents thought when I was 13 and listening to Rush Limbaugh everyday," Levey says. "But my family had strong family values. I was raised in a loving, caring household that let me be a free thinker." The modern gay rights movement began 40 years ago June 28 during the Stonewall Riots in New York City. While much of the controversy surrounding gay rights today has centered on same-sex marriage, a battle is brewing over another family issue: Is it bad for children to be raised by gay or lesbian parents. It damages the children, says Dale O'Leary, author of "One Man, One Woman: A Catholics Guide to Defending Marriage." She says that all children have a natural desire for a parent of each gender. But children of same-sex couples are forced to repress that desire because their parents won't accept it, she says. Their parents won't acknowledge their children's needs because they don't want to admit that they have caused their children to suffer. "A baby is not a trophy -- the child's welfare has to be considered," she says. "These children are more likely to experiment with same-sex relationships. They're more likely to be confused and hurt." Children of same-sex couples come out of the closet O'Leary says she doesn't personally know any same-sex parents or their children. That's the problem, some children of same-sex children say. So many people are talking about them; not enough are talking to them, they say. Some gayby boomers say they are tired of hearing that their family isn't legitimate. It's an argument many have heard since they were children. They learned that they didn't fit the definition of the "right" family, and worried how others would react if they found out about their parents. The result: the children of same-sex couples often lived lives that were more closeted than their parents. "Many of us were so closeted that we didn't know others like us were out there," says Danielle Silber, a 26-year-old fundraiser for the International Rescue Committee, who was raised by lesbian mothers and gay fathers in Takoma Park, Maryland. "In middle school, because of pervasive homophobia and taunting, I didn't tell any of my new friends in school about my family to the point where I wouldn't invite them to my birthday parties," Silber says. Silber says she didn't tell her parents about her fear of harassment because she was afraid to stand up for her family in school even though she was proud of them. "Although I would normally turn to my family, I couldn't because I was ashamed that I was ashamed of them," she says. Shame has now turned to pride for some gayby boomers. Many are now adults. They're writing memoirs, searching one another out online and have even formed their own support and advocacy group. Their numbers are increasing as well, according to COLAGE (Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere). At least 10 million people have one or more lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender parent. "As Harvey Milk [the first openly gay man elected to a major public office] said, the more people know us, the less they'll vote against us," says Silber, coordinator of COLAGE's New York chapter. "The more our voices are heard, the less other people will be bigoted." Who do you call mom? The more the children of same-sex couples come out, though, the more questions outsiders have about their unusual upbringing. Some common ones: Who do you call mom when you have two mothers? Did you ever miss not having a mom or dad? And the most tedious for most gayby boomers: What's your sexual orientation? The answers to these questions are as varied as the lives of gayby boomers themselves. Take the question about missing a mom and dad. Jeff DeGroot, 23, was raised by two lesbian mothers in Oregon. He doesn't buy the argument that there's a void in his life because he never had a dad toss a baseball to him. "My parents can throw a baseball and take me hiking just as well as any man could," DeGroot says. "I've always had a plethora of male role models. I never felt that I was missing anything by not having that dad for me." DeGroot does periodically share one struggle with other same-sex children -- what do call his parents. Since he's raised by two lesbians, who does he call mom? Other same-sex children address the same linguistic challenge by either calling their parents by their first names, or by using expressions like, "my other dad," or "kind-of-my mom," same-sex children researchers say. "If I'm on one side of the house and I want to talk to my biological mom, I'll yell, 'Mother,' '' DeGroot says, chuckling. "If Meg [one of his mothers] says, 'Yes?' I'll say, 'No, other mother.' " Dealing with teasing from classmates and the community isn't so easy, same-sex children say. It's not unusual to hear children of same-sex couples say that they were teased by classmates, but some of that may depend on their age and where they grew up. DeGroot, for example grew up in Corvallis, Oregon. The city is in a college town and in a liberal state. DeGroot's age may help, too. He didn't grow up in the 1970s, but came of age recently when gay couples were generally more accepted. DeGroot's biological mother, Elisabeth, says her community didn't criticize her or her partner for raising their son. Some of her son's friends actually thought their son was cool for having two lesbian moms, she says. "It was so in being gay and lesbian," she says. "Some of Jeff's classmates would say, 'Oh, you got two moms? I got to meet them!' '' Elisabeth's partner, Meg Grear, says she gets upset when she hears critics say that children of same-sex will grow up physiologically damaged. "That makes me mad. I know better. There's Jeff," she says. Do gay parents produce gay kids? Some children of same-sex couples say their upbringing actually makes them psychologically stronger. Abigail Garner, author of "Families Like Mine: Children of Gay Parents Tell It Like It is," calls her upbringing a "fabulous gift." She is the daughter of two gay dads and a straight mom. She says her interviews with other children of gay or lesbian parents showed that those who shared her upbringing tend to be more empathetic and unafraid to take unpopular stands. "I'm not surprised when I hear gay parents say their child stood up for the kid who was bullied in class or reached out to the one with a disability," Garner says. Some of the same children, though, face more difficulties dealing with questions about their sexual orientation. Garner, 37, who identifies as heterosexual, says some repress their sexuality because they don't want to give ammunition to their parents' critics. "I know story after story of children who started to question their sexuality but stayed quiet about it out of fear that the truth would reflect poorly on their parents," Garner says. Science has already weighed in on the question of whether same-sex couples tend to raise gay children -- and if there's something wrong if they do. According to the American Psychological Association, numerous research shows that most kids of same-sex households describe themselves as heterosexual in roughly the same proportion as conventional families. The association also says that homosexuality is not deviant behavior but a normal expression of human sexuality. The APA also concludes that gay parents are just as capable as straight parents, and that laws barring same-sex couples from adopting have no scientific basis. Those laws, however, do exist. At least six states have explicit restrictions on adoptions by gays and lesbians: Florida, Mississippi, Arkansas, Utah, Nebraska and Minnesota, according to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. The laws may have been passed to protect the family, but allowing gay people to marry could actually strengthen the family, says Jesse Levey, the Republican activist who was raised by two lesbians. "The conservative argument for family values is that we should be in married couples; I agree," Levey says. "If we want to see children raised by married couples, then we should let gay people get married." A Republican lobbying for same-sex marriages might seem odd, but Levey says he embraces the conservative notion of individual freedom. He became a Republican at 12. Once, he sought permission for his middle school class to listen to Rush Limbaugh (he says he no longer listens to Limbaugh). "When you grow up with Lesbian mothers, you can't get your ears pierced to rebel," he says. "I became a Republican." Today, Levey sees his parents' choice not as an expression of rebellion, but as a desire for something that's actually a conservative virtue -- a loving family. "I believe in family values, but family is about taking care of your children and respecting one another," he says. "It doesn't matter what your sexual orientation is."

Well . . . that's one way to bring the tourists back.

I can vouch for all of that. Right around the corner from BeHigh (Pradiphat, Soi 21 in Bangkok) is the Embassy Hotel. It's rather run down, but it makes a decent short-time place for about 700 baht. It's really not all that bad if you decide you want to stay there too, but don't expect luxury accommodations by any stretch of the imagination. Also, it's very convenient to the Chatuchak Market and the JJ Market. Saranrom Park, which is very close to the Grand Palace, and the vicinity is definitely jumping with available boys, most of whom ask for 500 baht plus taxi fare back. HeyGay is not exaggerating when he says about 100 boys were out there. Sometimes it's even more than that. Don't believe me? Go there some night about 11:00pm and see for yourself. You'll find a lot of military and university boys. Also, yes, a lot more boys who are having difficulty making it in the bars are turning to GayRomeo in hopes of hookups or, better still, a sugar daddy. I concur with every word of HeyGay's post.

I've heard stories like that too, but I'm not sure how much truth there is in them. If those stories are true, that's one thing, but I can picture those as rumor too. I would have thought if scams like that are actually taking place, then the embassies would be raising hell about it. Whenever I've bought something at a duty free shop, they either seal the bag with staples or they deliver the bag to the plane themselves. Either way, though, it is still a good idea to make damned sure as to what's in the bag before they seal it or you walk out of the shop with it. It's also a good idea to keep the receipt, not only for customs inspection when you arrive at your destination, but again as proof you paid for what's in that bag.