Gaybashing in Thailand....

Yep, dear readers, even here in Thailand shit like that happens, appologise the expression!

Yesterday I was sitting down to make a new entry in my weblog about a fantastic book I read, but then I was called by Kik and he asked me to drop everything and hurry home into the hil straight away. Because such a message was very unusual I left al my stuff and asked the manager of Club OneSeven to keep an eye on it, and I took the motorbike annec scooter up in the hills to our house there!
Arrived I found a lot of household gods amongst of which a large television and such things, clothes and name it.\
At the table was Kik with his friend Anad (I write it wrong but its the way you pronounce it at least). Anad was beaten up.....by his brother! Because his brother and so also the rest of his family had discovered Anad was gay and could not stand that. Anad and his family, except his mother, are muslims!
And as we all know Muslims can be quite intolerant about being gay.....and so he was trown out of the house (!!) by his brother while his father and mother did nothing.
A short while later, Kik had to go and perform in the two shows of Simon Cabaret, I took Anad to hospital where they took an Xray of his nose, which was not broken, luckily! But he got treated for the wounds inflicted by his brother.

I was appaled learning about what had happened, this very nice and decent and caring guy, how he got beaten up for only one reason only, and by his own blood at that, just for being gay!!

Thai families, boehdist that is do not mind gay sons, simply they see it as an extra daughter who can and wil take care of the parents when they are not able to care for themselves anymore, and or support them before they reach that state. Sons are the one who will have to start help caring for the parents of their wives when the time comes, so its simple. And thailand knows no old peoples care, no unemployment money, no social securities, no healthinsurrance for the poor...except that certain medical care is for free here.

BUT when you are from different faith or stock, so to speak, then also different way of how one gets treated it seems. And Anads family comes from Nepal.... and to my surprise are here illigal, as I found out are a lot of people, mainly from Birma!
They are very dependent on those who are wiling to employ them!

Anad, unable to advance in the shoolsystem because of his illigal status, caused by his parents as it seems, can not find ordinary jobs which brings in enough money to support his family...so what does a young 20 year old do in that case in Thailand...you guessed it right: he enters the 'entertainment' industry, and well on the side of the escort, companionship, rent-a boyfriend- for the holiday, and that kind of thing...I met him first when he was playing host at my regular bar....but he thought he didn't earn enough so he switched to another in the mainstreet and indeed started to earn more by way of receiving tips from the customers...which can run up to sometimes 1000 bath a day for spending the time with them, including bedtime, uhum...O how well disguarded I try to write this all down.. BUT also he ran the risk of getting exposed to his , muslim, family, with whom, he was warned it would not fall well. (Kik actually warned for it several times, pointing out that he was not a budhist like the other guys Anad knew, but a muslim, so a different set of reactions would come his way then the tollerant way the budhist families react on gay sons......and sadly that was exactly the way it went...sorry to say!!
Now Anad stays with us till he has found rooms to live in, but they are expensive in patong, so maybe he has to look elsewhere.

Also last night was the muslim new year, they told me, and Anad wanted to go to the mosk....but he didn't dare to go to his regular mosk in Kamala...so he went to the one in patong....for how long? Till the news reaches from kamala that he's gay then he will not be able to go there as well.....

Faith is something beautifull, but not if it starts to run people into the ground just because of sexual orientation one can not help of having!! The Lord created men to his immage, women and men, and as such also all other natural variations of our species, like gays !!

Why is it that people have so much problems with people being different, be he or she gay, invalid, or whatever, we are all creatures of the same creator!! and as such are equal.

MMM, when I write this I get angry again...such a warm, friendly, caring guy, beaten up by his brother while the parents didn't do anything or didn't dare to (!!)

Hope to take him tomorrow to the men2men clinic for a suportgroup or councilling...though we have to be carefull because of his iligal status and we do not want him to get deeper involved in the 'entertainment' industry he was slowly getting involved in........l
BUT decent rooms are so expensibe here, even when shared with other guys...
and we try to prevent him entering accomodations of one of the clubs here because that means he can only get out of it when a customer, or someone else is prepared to buy him free for 30.000 bath (roughly 600 euro's) which is way to much for guys like him.

Well, we'll see what happens!