On the morning of 21st February 2009, a few hundred LGBT activists gathered in the car park of the Chiang Mai Religion Practice Centre on Tha Pae Road. They had rainbow flags, costumes and a route planned down Chang Klan Road to a stage at the old Saengtawan cinema. What they got instead was a mob — Red Shirt vehicles blocking the exits, 150 policemen standing idle, men hurling abuse, and a night trapped inside until midnight. The parade never happened.
It was, as Citylife wrote at the time, a day of ignominy. But it was also, as it turned out, the beginning of something.
The 2009 debacle had been partly engineered by a self-styled gay activist named Nathee Teeraojjanaponse — known as Gay Nathee — who, aggrieved at being sidelined from the organising committee, had turned to the media and the city’s conservative networks to sabotage the event he claimed to support. The resulting headlines ran in newspapers around the world, and Chiang Mai earned a reputation it hadn’t asked for. Gay Nathee is now serving 12,257 years in prison for money laundering. The community he tried to derail is still marching.
Ten years passed. Organisers regrouped, refocused and built something more durable: a coalition that encompasses sex workers, people living with HIV, ethnic minority groups, migrant labourers and disability networks, alongside the more familiar faces of LGBT activism. When the parade finally returned in 2019, over 1,000 people walked from the same Chiang Mai Religion Practice Centre, down Night Bazaar and along Loi Kroh Road to Tha Pae Gate — this time led, not blocked, by police. Tourists lit candles. Parents brought their LGBT children. People wept.
“Ten years ago a brave gathering of LGBTs were blocked in a car park,” Citylife wrote after the 2019 event. “Today, over 1,000 came together in a parade proudly led by the police, as the public waved, cheered and encouraged them on their way.”
Now it is 2026, and the movement is seventeen years old.
Chiang Mai Pride 2026, themed Inclusive City, arrives this May with an ambition that goes beyond the parade itself: to make Chiang Mai the first province in Thailand to officially open national Pride Month celebrations, and to anchor that commitment in a signed agreement
between the city’s government, business community and civil society. It is, in the most literal sense, a political act — and an intentional one.
The programme opens at dawn on Sunday 17th May with GEN ACT Runs at Tha Pae Gate, under the theme “Run for Recognition.” Registration opens at 6am, with participants collecting their running bibs, T-shirts and commemorative gifts before a 6.30am welcome from the MC, who will frame the run around its core themes: legal recognition of gender identity, gender expression, bodily characteristics and the equal dignity of every person. A warmup session follows at 6.45am, before the official opening remarks at 7am.
At 7.10am, the Awareness Walk departs — a shorter, symbolic route designed for youth, families and the elderly. Ten minutes later, the runners set off on a full loop of the moat. Along the route, photo points and information stations keep the issues front and centre; first aid teams and volunteers are stationed throughout. Finishers receive commemorative medals, water and fruit.
From 9.30am, the focus shifts to a central stage for “Voices from the Runners” — short reflections from youth representatives, civil society members and participants. A collective declaration of intent for equality follows at 10am, with a group photograph. Exhibition booths covering legal information, health and wellbeing, and network organisations are open from 10.30am, before a formal closing ceremony at noon.
On Friday 22nd May, from 8am to 4pm, the focus moves to a city department store for a full day of workshops and training on gender diversity, human rights and related issues — the educational backbone of a movement that has always understood that visibility alone is not enough.
The main event is Sunday 24th May, running from 1pm through to midnight. The afternoon begins at Tha Pae Gate with the formal signing of the Memorandum of Understanding for an Inclusive City, led by the Governor of Chiang Mai alongside government, business and civil society representatives — a public, documented pledge to drive Chiang Mai toward becoming a city that genuinely respects diversity and promotes equality. Joint statements will be delivered by representatives from all three sectors.
As evening falls, the parade steps off from Phuttha Sathan, moving through the Night Bazaar, along Loi Kroh Road and arriving at Tha Pae Gate — the same square where candles were lit in 2019. The procession is more expansive than ever: alongside the parade itself, the programme includes performances from civil society networks and partner organisations, creative arts and activities throughout the evening from Sapphic Pride, Thai and international live music, luk thung, DJ sets, exhibition booths from supporting organisations, an outdoor film screening on sex workers’ rights organised by the Empower
Foundation, a best Pride costume contest, and — in a pointed nod toward marriage equality — a blessing ceremony for same-sex couples, calling on Thailand to enshrine equal marriage in law for all. Health, rights and protection information will be available throughout the venue.
The organisers frame all of it as part of the Road to Bangkok World Pride 2030, and as a contribution to promoting Phuket’s hosting of the Inter Pride Conference 2026 — Chiang Mai staking its place in a national story that is still being written.
In 2009, a mob blocked the exit and the parade never left the car park. In 2019, 1,000 people walked. In 2026, the governor signs, the couples are blessed, and the city makes a promise in writing.
Follow updates at @CHIANGMAIPRIDE on Facebook and Instagram, or contact Khun Ton on 061-672-3624 or Khun Aum on 097-930-4845 via Line.
