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With the usual delays, and with darkness falling rapidly, the police escort finally moved off and to the cheers of the assembled crowd who had been watching the final preparations, the Bangkok Pride 2003 parade was underway.

The crowd swelled as the parade made it's way up Silom, near the mouth of Soi 4 the surge almost blocked the parade and the passing traffic - official estimates put the crowd varyingly at 10,000 and somewhere between 25-35,000, obviously less than last year's when the parade was part of the much bigger Loy Kratong/Silom Walking Street celebrations also held on the same day, but still showing strong support and appreciation for the more than 200 participants on the floats and marching in groups or individually in the parade.

While there are fewer large floats this year - a few major sponsors were noticeable for their absence - there was a much larger contingent representing local GLBT support and social groups, a significant achievement reflecting the broader community based approach of this year's organising committee!

The highlights of the parade were the Balcony float, one of the largest in the parade, which wowed the crowd with its usual splash of colour and fun, as did Utopia Tours with their giant flag, while Durex pressed the safe sex message in an up-beat way distributing condoms and lube to the crowd from their small, loud, but very popular vehicle. And Dick's Cafe's highly original "gay is not just a look" float provided a much needed alternative to some of the more outrageous costumes of some of the participants!

Some pictures from the day are available in the gallery here and more pictures should be up on the Bangkok Pride website soon.

The 2003 Pride week celebrations conclude tonight with the Overtime Party in Silom Soi 4, which includes a lucky draw with a 25,000 baht prize - a great way to end Pride Week for the lucky winner!

With Pride Week over, the post mortems will begin and the 2003 Bangkok Pride Coalition committee will begin to wind down its activities and distribute the funds raised this year to local charities, then the focus will move to next year with the 2004 committee to be elected early in the new year.

This has been a difficult year in Thailand both in general and for the gay community and gay venues in particular, with external factors adversely affecting tourism, the new social order campaign and many other factors. It has also been a very difficult and evolutionary year for the Bangkok Pride Coalition with a lot of new committee members, with a broader community focus and with the usual conflicts, upheavals and often disorganised chaos that most community organisations go though as they evolve to meet changing community needs and objectives - looking at the history of gay pride movements worldwide it often seems that there is more blood spilled in the committee rooms than during protests and rights marches in the streets and Thailand is certainly no exception!

While there have been many successes this year, there have also been many problems, complaints, missed opportunities and many lessons to be learnt. There are many objectives and agendas competing to be heard and to influence the development of the fledgling gay pride movement in Bangkok - the Bangkok Pride Coalition's stated objectives are to "organize entertainment and information events that promote a positive image of the gay and lesbian community in Bangkok, to foster comradery and build community, and to raise money for community needs", and they have done that admirably over the last few years though usually under a fairly strong western influence, but other local community groups trying to build awareness and gain rights and acceptance for local gays want a voice as well and want things done more "Thai style". Meanwhile local gay businesses and venues want to see tourists flooding in for an international standard gay event, and surely the government and other local authorities will eventually see the value of such an event in building tourism and Thailand's image as well, or will the new social order and other tourism objectives override this?

With all these competing interests it will be interesting to see what will happen next year, particularly who will pick up the Bangkok Pride Coalition ball and run with it for 2004, but in the mean time thanks and congratulations to this year's organisers for a great Bangkok Pride 2003!