July 2, 200818 yr I have always felt that the gay clubs were targeted more than the straight clubs in Pattaya. I don't think this has to do with being gay as much as it does have to do with the amount of money being moved in and out. But, the amount of press of the gay raids far outweighs the number of straight ones. I know there is NO difference in the ages, drug habits, etc of these places. You can find it all at both gay and straight. Recently in NYC, there was an uproar over the gay pride weekend. See article below. I remember back to the days when the mayor really targeted the gay places almost to the point of extinction. We were resilient back then and there are enough in Pattaya to hang tough as well. Gay men are smart and educated and are not going anywhere (once they can afford the airfare to get here). I do think the way business has been done in the past is over and there is a new set of rules that will be enforced. Gay Pride Weekend Brings Club Raids by Steve Weinstein New York Editor-In-Chief Saturday Jun 28, 2008 On Friday, June 27, tens of thousands of men were pouring out onto the streets of Manhattan from all over the country expecting a citywide party. The last weekend in June is not only a celebration of Gay Pride, but also a lucrative weekend-long festival of gay dance events. But this year, something else happened. The City of New York, which has been cracking down hard on gay sex venues, moved in with a vengeance on nightclubs. Splash was reportedly overrun by police, although no one from the city or the club returned calls for comment. The club has, however, remained open. The other club was shut down. Pacha, the megaclub on the western edge of Hell’s Kitchen, was scheduled to hold two major dance parties for Gay Pride: Victor Calderone’s Pride Evolve on Saturday; and the Saint at Large’s Champions on Sunday night. Champions has been moved to Capitale, a large space on the border of the Lower East Side and Chinatown where Saint at Large has held parties in the past. Mike Peyton, of the Saint at Large, said that anyone with a ticket for Pacha party should simply show up at Capitale, which is the Bowery a few blocks above Canal Street, and the ticket will be honored. Moving the party has cost the Saint at Large probably much, if not most, of the proceeds, which were to go to Heritage of Pride, the organization that runs the march down Fifth Avenue. A notice at Pacha gave the following information for the club shutdown. There has been surveillance of the club since Aug. 11, 2007. Since that time, the warrent said, there have been drugs bought that included Ecstasy in various quantities for about $20 per pill; cocaine, up to as much as $750 worth; marijuana; and "alleged" ketamine (which could mean it was sold as Special K, but might have been a substitute). The warrant cited drug buys within the cub on dates from August 2007 into June 2008, but the big drug buys only started occurring around December of last year. The club remains closed as of this writing. According to some reports, Marquee, a straight club on the "club strip" in West Chelsea, was also shut down by authorities. But many people, both New Yorkers and out-of-towners, are wondering about the timing of these incidents on the biggest all-gay weekend of the year. http://www.edgenewyork.com/index.php?ch=ne...3=&id=76623
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