On Dec 23, Bangkok will host its first gay festival in nearly a decade. The Bangkok Gay Festival community brought the original gay parade to our city in 1999, and followed it with four consecutive years of festivities from Narathiwat Road to Silom Road. Returning from a nine-year hiatus are organizers Pakorn “Odd” Pimton, a 54-year-old performance arts instructor, and 50-year-old Oam Pimdee, who’s the CAO of Chanita cosmetics. The return festival has a unique theme: Bangkok Gay Sports Day. Here, the organizers talk about their goals and the LGBT situation in Bangkok.

What is Bangkok Gay Sports Day?

Odd: We want to encourage the LGBT community to be healthier. Anyone can register at the entrance and participate in any of the day’s sporting competitions, like football or badminton. We just want people to have fun by participating in an activity with us.
 
Oam: The main highlight is our molam band, Siang Khaen. Also, we won’t be selling any alcohol because this is a family-friendly event. Kids between 15-18 can enter for free. We will also have police and ambulances with medics on-site.
 
Odd: We are trying to encourage the young LGBT people to acknowledge and appreciate their rights. The event is funded with our own money. We don’t have any sponsors.

When did you start this project and why?

Odd: We started it in 1998. I saw a similar street parade in Switzerland and started trying to find a way to bring it to Bangkok. A lot of people doubted me, saying I would need at least B10-20 million to be able to do it. But we succeeded. We did it in order to promote LGBT rights in this country. Honestly, we only expected 200-300 people our first year, but we had around 100,000. It got way much more attention than we could ever have dreamed of.

Why do you donate your profits to charities?

Odd: We are not about business. This year we are donating all of our profits to Wat Pra Baht Nam Phu, the Buddhist temple that cares for AIDS patients.

Do you feel that Bangkok is open-minded about LGBT people?

Odd: I think we are the most open-minded city in Asia. We have been educating our children, and families are much more open-minded nowadays. In Taiwan [a country that recently legalized same-sex marriage] the parade was met by many unaccepting citizens. In Bangkok, everyone is just so friendly and welcoming, and just want to take photos with all the dressed-up LGBT people. I have students in Phuket, aged 13-18, who go outside with fully done make-up and they haven’t experienced any negative pushback from society.
 
Oam: Don’t create any trouble for anyone, people will be quite open-minded and accepting. We need to support each other and help each other improve the LGBT community in our country. We’ve already seen families buying tickets for this event because it is very safe and alcohol-free. Parents just want to take their kids to watch all the fabulously dressed-up people.

Do you see our country legalizing same-sex marriage any time soon?

Oam: Maybe if we keep doing these LGBT-friendly events and activities, the government will see that we are actually helping to bring tourists to the country. Maybe that would speed up the process of legalizing same-sex marriage.

What’s the plan for next year?

Oam: The plan is to organize Bangkok Gay Festival as an annual event, like Songkran. 
 
Grab your ticket for Bangkok Gay Sports Day at bit.ly/2A0RJn5