Novotel will apologise to transvestite

A spokesman for the high-end hotel's public relations division said a press conference would take place today at the hotel. The general manager of the hotel and a representative of Accor Group, which represents hotel chains including Novotel, will be present.

Sutthirat said he was also invited to the press conference.

"Tomorrow everything will be concluded," he said in a telephone interview.

The apology by the hotel arrived in time for a deadline set by Sutthirat, who said last Thursday that if the hotel did not apologise to him within a week, he would bring the case to court as he had been discriminated against because of his sexual orientation.

Sutthirat, a local brand manager for a French cosmetics firm, was denied entry to the Concept CM2 nightclub at the hotel on June 22. The reason given by door staff was because he is a katoey. The Thai word refers to transvestites.

More than 100 organisations worldwide that advocate the rights of gays, lesbians and transvestites launched a campaign to boycott the hotel.

Bangkok Rainbow Organisa-tion launched a boycott campaign called "Novotel No Homo-sexual" through its website.

In the travel section of UK Gay News - an online media centre for gays and lesbians - tags that read "gay friendly" had been removed from a list of Accor hotels and replaced with "This hotel is part of the Accor group and there is currently an international ban on the company following a problem in Bangkok."

A statement posted on the UK Gay News website said the tag "gay friendly" would not be reinstalled unless the problem in Bangkok is resolved.

Nikorn Arthit, president of Bangkok Rainbow Organisa-tion, said the campaign would end once the hotel admitted its mistake.