A night out turned into jail time for some unlucky Thai bar-goers:

Tourist police and regular police raided a gay pub in the middle of the city, which was open for entertainment out of business hours. Police found more than 200 customers in the pub. Many of them did not have I.D. cards and some tested positive for drug consumption.
…
Police arrested the pub manager for illegal opening and detained customers without I.D. cards or for consuming drugs. The offenders will be prosecuted, accordingly.

That's a nasty hangover…

Here's an intriguing way to accommodate cross-dressing students:

A secondary school in rural Thailand has designed a new bathroom that it calls a "transvestite toilet" for its growing community of cross-dressers.

The Kampang School in northeastern Thailand conducted a survey last term that showed more than 200 of the school's 2,600 students considered themselves transvestites, said school director Sitisak Sumontha.

So, when classes resumed in May, the school unveiled a unisex restroom designated by a human figure split into two, half man in blue, and half female in red. Below the figure, it says, "Transvestite Toilet."

Surely it's great that schools aren't alienating the students, but wouldn't a simple "unisex" toilet have been sufficient? Though progressive, this method does ultimately marginalize…

There's some bloody good news out of Thailand this morning.

The Red Cross announced that they are expanding their screening process to eschew gay discrimination. While the organization previously leaned on gay men in their vetting process, they will now include a number of questions that targets behavior, rather than people:

"We didn't mean to hurt anyone," said Soisaang Pikulsod, director of the Thai Red Cross National Blood Centre. "It was just to ensure the highest possible safety of our patients."

The Red Cross will rework the form to include more questions about all types of sexual behaviour, gay or heterosexual, that could increase the risk of diseases such as AIDS, she said.

Now, if only the rest of the world would fall in line…

Thailand's Health Ministry put a moratorium on castration's today. Officials worry that procedures aren't properly monitored and want some time to review, forcing penis-possessing trans folk to simply hang around.

"As of today, doctors can perform the surgery if there is a medical reason to do so — not for any other reason," ministry spokesman Suphan Srithamma said.

The move came after a leading gay activist, Natee Teerarojjanapongs, called on the Medical Council to take action against clinics that perform castrations on underage boys.

Natee, head of the Gay Political Group of Thailand, said he received several complaints from parents of underage boys seeking castrations in part because of Internet advertisements that promise cheap operations resulting in feminine qualities such as softer skin.

Or you could buy a loofa.

• Paris Hilton made a press appearance in Korea this weekend. And so did her lipstick smeared teeth.

• Chris Crocker wants us to leave him alone. We will, just as soon as he stops assaulting our culture with his attention-seeking absurdity.

• John McCain's 95-year old mother takes jab at Mitt Romney.

CONTINUED »

• We can't top today's Doonesbury.

• Maureen "Marcia" McCormick's new book reveals that she and Eve "Jan" Plumb got it behind the Brady Bunch scenes. Said book makes McCormick masturbatory material once again. Poor Plumb remains a plot device.

• AMC's Mad Men getting another go. Said go guarantees more masturbatory Jon Hamm material.

CONTINUED »

The Thai government just can seem to get it straight. The new government, which took over after last September's coup, promised to grants gays, lesbians and trans folk (referred to as "kathoey") equal rights.

One of the charter writers, Chirmsak Pinthong, said, "This council has already guaranteed equal rights for the disabled, so why can't we give the same treatment to those who have sexual preferences."

CONTINUED »

• Isaiah Washington really can't stop talking about being fired from Grey's Anatomy. Why? Because you're all racist:

I apologized and showed my remorse for what I said and for the pain I caused anyone. If a black man can’t get forgiveness in this country, when so many other people like Robert Downey Jr. and the governor of California get second and third chances … I think that says a lot about race and this country where we stand.

Washington also says that he didn't go to"homophobia rehab":

There is no rehab for homophobia—that was just some crap being put out by the network. I went into an executive counseling program which many people in this industry know about and go to. They knew what the program was but chose to call it what they wanted to fit their agenda. And more importantly, I volunteered for it because I wanted to understand my fight with Patrick and how it got out of hand like that. I wanted to know what I could do to avoid it happening again.

What a saint. And a studio's liability.

CONTINUED »

Thailand's estimated to have the world's largest concentration of transsexuals. What a perfect place, then, for Sony BMG to construct the world's first trannie girl band: Venus Flytrap. That's right: Venus Flytrap, as in the flesh eating plant known for snapping tighter than a freshly constructed pussy.

The company auditioned over 100,000 thai trannies, but narrowed it down to five. After a year-long singing dancing boot camp, the women emerged as the trannie version of The Spice Girls, uniform prefix and all.

CONTINUED »

• Terrance Dean to write homo hip-hopper tell-all, Hiding in Hip-Hop: Confessions of a Down Low Brother in the Entertainment Industry. Juicy!

• Michigan Court of Appeals voided the state's domestic partnership laws. Shitty!

• Governor Eliot Spitzer proposes $3.6million budget increase for NY's gay organizations. Super!

• CNN gets all 7th grader on Fox News. Catty!

• Thai Trannies still called "disordered". Rude!

It may surprise some of you out there, but Thailand remains a leader in the battle against the HIV transmission. While the country lost its share of citizens at the beginning of the global scourge, the 1990s ushered in a unwavering public prevention campaign. Further, the country has become a model for the distribution of cheap anti-viral drugs to infected parties.

As a result of these steps, more and more denizens of the Asian nation are living with AIDS. While this undoubtedly comes as good news, as with so many things in this world, drawbacks remain. One major problem is that despite all the country's progress, an enormous cloud of stigma still hangs above HIV-positive people. Thus, people who have been abandoned by their families have turned a temple that once acted as a hospice into a provisional homeless shelter. Seth Mydans of The International Herald Tribune writes:

Illustrating what experts say could be one of the next challenges as low- cost treatments spread around the world, the AIDS temple and a small satellite village have become, in effect, a new sort of leper colony.

"This is our new problem," said the temple's abbot, Alongkot Dikkapanyo, 53, who founded the hospice 14 years ago. "What should we do with a healthy person who is rejected by their family and can't work? This will be a big burden on society in the future."

As activists struggle to find appropriate housing for AIDS surivors, the success of earlier campaigns may be backfiring. It seems that public health campaigns have been so triumphant that it's muted the dire nature of the epidemic. Mydans continues:

Thailand's successes in both prevention and treatment have brought with them another, perhaps predictable problem: the loss of a sense of urgency that has caused a slackening of prevention campaigns and the beginnings of a rise in new infections.

In addition, experts say about 5 percent of drug recipients each year will develop a resistance and need to switch to much more expensive "second line" drug treatments, which are covered by patents and will strain the government's budget for cheap medications.

While Thai activists struggle to surmount these new obstacles, may we offer a suggestion: perhaps drug companies can stop trying to make a profit on AIDS and distribute drugs out of the goodness of their hearts. Radical, yes, but crazy enough to work…

We ask you, our beloved readers, what's your take?

In our effort to provide you with a little art, we bring you photographer Thomas Weisskopf and his recent series, "Ladyboys." After focussing his gaze on a group of Swiss soccer boys, Weisskopf headed to Bangkok to capture the transcendental beauty of Thai trannies. Of the photos, Weisskopf says:

I wanted to show the self-confidence and the fragility of these people. They walk the line; it is just a part of their self-presentation. They want to appear beautiful as long as possible, knowing that they will fade like a flower.

Unlike Nan Goldin, who also featured Thai transsexuals in her work, Weisskopf neglects snapshots, choosing instead a line of portraiture at once confrontational and inviting. Take a look for youself and let us know what you think.

"I Walk the Line" [Sleek Magazine]

It pays to be gay in British military. Or, it does if you've been booted. [365 Gay]

Finland Blames Thailand for Slutty Finnish, HIV. [Bangkok Post]

Zidane headbutt truth revealed! [UK Daily Mail]

Crist/Harris leading in Florida. Gallagher Out. [The New York Times]

If only our commute were so sexy. [The Advocate]