6 Jul 2001

16 teams vie for gay football championship

Sixteen gay-friendly teams vie for glory and 8,000 baht in the first Pattaya Gay Festival Football Championship.

Le Café Royale won the grand prize - 8,000 baht and a trophy to be awarded at a ceremony later this year - during the first Pattaya Gay Festival Football Championship, by beating the team from Amor Restaurant, according to the Weekly Report on Pattaya Activities web site.

Sixteen businesses fielded teams for the tournament, from Adam and Eve to Turbo - all gay establishments, all located in Pattaya. There were four rounds of elimination played over the course of the month of June.

The games were played before work in the afternoons in an open field behind a furniture store. The games were well attended both by Thai locals - friends and family, wives and children (not all employees of gay spots are actually gay) - and visitors.

In what the site describes as a close and exciting match, third and fourth places were decided late into the game between Ambiance Hotel and Adam and Eve. Ambiance eventually prevailed, 4-2. They received a 4,000 baht prize.

This event, and many others, sponsored by the Pattaya Gay Festival, are coming ahead of the festival in Pattaya itself, scheduled for later this year.
Anti-retroviral drugs are not the only subjects on the table. The group will also discuss treatments for opportunistic illnesses that arise as a result of HIV, such as pneumonia.

Thailand has begun to manufacture some anti-retroviral drugs locally, the Post reported. The first batch is due to be ready next week, at a cost of 2,500 baht per month, down from 4,000 baht, an amount equivalent to the monthly minimum wage.

Thailand