International Mr Gay Competition

Pablo Salvador International Mr. Gay Titleholder.

Mr. Gay International was the first international contest to select an Ambassador or spokesman to support the mission of the sponsoring nonprofit corporation, the Noble Beast Foundation. President of the Noble Beast Foundation is Don Spradlin, who founded and produced the first three Competitions with a team of dedicated volunteers. Carlos Melia, native from Argentina was the second International Mr Gay, elected and crowned in Los Angeles, California in 2008. The last International Mr. Gay titleholder was Pablo Salvador Sepúlveda from Chile. The competition has been de-facto replaced by Mr Gay World.

Mission statement

"(To) advocate International Equal Rights by confirming the essential nature and contributions of gay men to a healthy society where "gay" is not a stereotype"^[1]

Media Coverage

The event explicitly seeks to highlight discrimination against LGBTI people and provide select positive role models. A number of contestants from a number of countries has faced sanctions for their selection or competition, including Zoltan Parag from India,^[2] Taurai Zhanje from Zimbabwe, Robel Hailu from Ethiopia, former Olympian Chavdar Arsov from Bulgaria, Wendelinus Hamutenya from Namibia and Xiao Dai from China.^[3][4]

Titleholders

List of Mr Gay International titleholders

Year	Country/Territory	Mr. Gay International	National title	Location	Ref
2011- 2012	Chile	Pablo Salvador Sepúlveda	Mr. Gay Chile	Los Angeles, California
2009-2010	Switzerland	Ricco Müller	Mr. Gay Switzerland International	Bakersfield, California
2008	Argentina	Carlos Melia,	Mr. Gay Argentina	Los Angeles, California
2006-2007	Israel	Nathan Shaked	Mr. Gay Israel	Palms Springs, California
2005	United States	Jesse Bashem	Mr. Gay United States	San Francisco, California

Mr Gay International The Competition

The third edition of International Mr Gay International, took place in Los Angeles, California. Carlos Melia, was crowned as IMG 2008, representing his country of origin as Mr Gay Argentina.^[5][6] As International Mr. Gay, Carlos traveled extensively, not only in his own community but on a global stage, as an ambassador and spokesperson for equal and human rights, fundraising and endorsing LGBT organizations and events worldwide.^[7]

In 2009, by the end of his reign, after a successful performance, he was invited to join the Board of Directors of Mr Gay World, and appointed Executive Director of Central and South America and the Caribbean.^[8][9]

Ricco Müller

The next US Finale was held in San Francisco’s Museum of Performance and Design in November 2008 when Michael Jarvis was named the US Delegate to the IMG. The International Competition was assigned to the Philippine producers for May 2009, in preparation for the first time the IMG Competition would be produced outside of the United States.

The IMG was scheduled for Manila in the Philippines for the summer of 2009, but the Manila team failed to produce the contest hence, competition was moved back to California.^[10]

The 2009 MGI competition was held in Bakersfield, California where Switzerland’s Ricco Müller proclaimed as the International Mr. Gay title holder for 2009. Rounding up the top five are Australia- 1st Runner Up, USA- 2nd Runner Up, Philippines- 3rd runner up and Puerto Rico- 4th runner up). Ricco Müller is a Student and Artist, Traineeship Daniel Libeskind Architects. Ricco Müller will now work as an International Mr Gay Ambassador to improve the visibility of gay men and Supports for AIDS-aid, Europride 2009 and Deaf Community.

On January 2011, Pablo Salvador Sepúlveda, activist and Teacher of History, competed in the International Mr Gay Competition and won the title. As International Mr. Gay, Pablo Salvador work for the international LGBT community and travel to Chile, Uruguay and Argentina. Pablo appeared on various Radio and Television Stations in Chile as gay spokesman.

See also

• Mr Gay World

References