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The Thai Rak Thai party was elected to government just 6 months ago with one of the largest majorites ever seen in Thailand, but their popularity, and that of their business tycoon leader, is reportedly already starting to wane - perhaps in part due the to social re-engineering campaign spearheaded by the Prime Minister and the Interior Minister.

The campaign has been variously represented as a crackdown on corruption, vice, drugs and depravity and an attempt to restore morality and family values in Thailand. The brunt of the campaign has been bourn by entertainment venues and their patrons. The campaign is not specifically anti-gay (though many have complained that some of the venue restrictions have been applied more strictly to gay venues), but it is certainly having a significant effect on the gay scene - mostly in Bangkok, but it is expected to spread through the entire country over the next few months.

A lot of the coverage in the English language papers and in the local Thai press has focused on the effects on the entertainment scene generally, and most has been negative and the most recent stories indicate that the tide may already be beginning to turn!

Also a good run down of the actions in the gay scene in Bangkok, written by Pierre Tourneau, was posted to the Asia/Pacific Rainbow Yahoo Groups mailing list a few days ago. The article is also available online on a Hong Kong news site.