THAILAND: HIV Testing PSA

This PSA from a Bangkok-based HIV prevention group might not be office-friendly. Wait for the end when you can watch.

Thailand To See Marriage Equality Bill

Thailand's federal government says it is ready to put forth a bill to legalize same-sex marriage. But not in name.

"We will put forward the same-sex civil-union bill in Parliament," Naras Savestanan, director general of the Rights and Liberties Protection Department, announced yesterday with the chair of the House committee on justice and human rights, Viroon Phuensaen, by his side. Naras said his department and the House committee had decided to put this bill before Parliament with the hope that same-sex partners would be able to enjoy the same rights as heterosexual couples. "The rights cover tax benefits, pension benefits and more," he said, adding that once this bill takes effect, the civil union of same-sex couples would legally equal the registered marriage of men and women.

Thailand would become the first Asian nation with equal marriage/civil unions, unless you count New Zealand, which some people would. No time frame for bill has been revealed.

Don't Say You Weren't Warned

Photo by Shaun Longstreet..

Thailand: AIDS Vaccine Breakthrough

Scientists in Thailand are reportedly "surprised" by their finding that an AIDS vaccine actually appears to work, reducing the risk of infection by 31%.

For the first time, an experimental vaccine has prevented infection with the AIDS virus, a watershed event in the deadly epidemic and a surprising result. Recent failures led many scientists to think such a vaccine might never be possible. The vaccine cut the risk of becoming infected with HIV by more than 31 percent in the world’s largest AIDS vaccine trial of more than 16,000 volunteers in Thailand, researchers announced Thursday in Bangkok. Even though the benefit is modest, “it’s the first evidence that we could have a safe and effective preventive vaccine,” Col. Jerome Kim said in a telephone interview. He helped lead the study for the U.S. Army, which sponsored it with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

The institute’s director, Dr. Anthony Fauci, warned that this is “not the end of the road,” but said he was surprised and very pleased by the outcome. “It gives me cautious optimism about the possibility of improving this result” and developing a more effective AIDS vaccine, Fauci said in a telephone interview. “This is something that we can do.” Even a marginally helpful vaccine could have a big impact. Every day, 7,500 people worldwide are newly infected with HIV; 2 million died of AIDS in 2007, the U.N. agency UNAIDS estimates. “Today marks an historic milestone,” said Mitchell Warren, executive director of the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, an international group that has worked toward developing a vaccine. “It will take time and resources to fully analyze and understand the data, but there is little doubt that this finding will energize and redirect the AIDS vaccine field,” he said in a statement.

All the vaccine's recipients were followed for three years after receiving double-blind shots, which were delivered in six doses over six months. Optimism over this development must be tempered by the low number of those protected, of course.

Gay Monks Gone Wild

Thailand's Buddhist rule-maker wants the country's gay and transgender monks to tone things down and has issued a new set of behavioral guidelines.

Phra Maha Wudhijaya Vajiramedhi, a senior monk, told the BBC the guidelines would address issues like smoking, drinking alcohol, walking and going to the toilet properly, which are all detailed in the traditional 75 Dharma principles of Buddhism, and the 227 precepts for monks. But he was especially concerned, he said, by the flamboyant behaviour of homosexual and transgender monks, who can often be seen wearing revealing robes, carrying pink purses and sporting effeminately-shaped eyebrows.

Fark: "What is the sound of one hand reaching around?"

The Shame Of Hello Kitty

Police officers in Thailand will be forced to wear a hot pink Hello Kitty armband if they disobey the rules, thereby shaming their masculinity. A police official in Bangkok says, "Simple warnings no longer work. This new twist is expected to make them feel guilt and shame and prevent them from repeating the offense, no matter how minor. Hello Kitty is a cute icon for young girls. It's not something macho police officers want covering their biceps."