Panyrat Kirapatpakon, a Thai business student, beat 24 transsexuals and transvestites at the extravagant pageant in the resort town of Pattaya to the Miss International Queen title. The contestants, shortlisted from more than 100 hopefuls, came from 15 countries, with a record number from Europe.

Miss International Queen is a beauty contest for transsexuals and transgendered individuals held in the Tiffany’s Show cabaret in the resort city of Pattaya, Thailand about 150 km (93 miles) southeast of BangkoIn.

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Tiffany’s Show Pattaya wants to provide an opportunity for transvestites/transgender to be part of Thailand’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in the 21st century, breaking boundaries and defining what it means ; to create human rights awareness among international communities; to make a donation to the Royal Sponsored AIDS Foundation ; to build friendship and exchange ideas among international lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities; to support the Tourism Authority of Thailand by increasing the number of tourists arrivals in Thailand and Pattaya city, to support and continue to build Pattaya city one of the most entertaining cities of the world, to build Tiffany’s Show Pattaya as a bridge between the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and the rest of the world.

Bangkok is also a global centre for sex-change surgery, and appears very tolerant with transgenderism. In reality, Pattaya is one of Thailands most commercially developed beach resorts, just 47kms east of Bangkok. It began as an R&R capital for American troops during the Vietnam War and has retained its legacy of go-go clubs, beer bars and massage parlours. The tourism boom of the 1980s exhausted the infrastructure, leaving the beaches in the area quite unpleasant, despite modern efforts at clean-up. However, Pattaya is still home to many international resorts and is crowded primarily with sex tourists.