Mr Gay World

Mr. Gay World is a registered, trademarked annual international competition for gay men, established in 2009. On September 4, 2024, Eric Butter officially announced that Mr. Wayne Renzo from the Philippines has acquired the Mr. Gay World Organization. With this historic transition, Wayne Renzo is now the new owner, ushering in a new chapter for the globally celebrated brand.

Mr Gay World

Formation	2009
Founder	Eric Butter
Type	Beauty pageant
Location	Worldwide
Membership	18+
Official language	English
Owner	Wayne Renzo
Website	www.mrgayworld.com

The 2024 Mr Gay World Competition was held in Durham & Tyneside & Northumberland, United Kingdom on August 26, 2024. The reigning Mr Gay World is Paul Carruthers who represented Great Britain.

History

Before there was Mr Gay World, there was IMG Mr Gay International. Brian Merriman (owner of Mr Gay Ireland) and Tore Aasheim (co-owner of Mr Gay Europe) attended the competition with the European delegation. Merriman and Aasheim decided to create their own international competition.^{[citation needed]}

Brian Merriman invited Tore Aasheim, Morten Ruda (owner of Mr Gay Norway and co-owner of Mr Gay Europe) and Dean Nelson (owner of Mr Gay Canada) to Dublin, Ireland to plan a brand new international competition. They invited Eric Butter (who is the current President and co-founder of Mr Gay World and Noemi Alberto (owner of Mr Gay Philippines) to what was to become Mr Gay World.

Merriman and Ruda bowed out due to other commitments, and the ownership was divided equally between Aasheim, Nelson and Butter. Both Merriman and Ruda stayed involved in the competition as Directors responsible for finding delegates in Europe and Africa to attend the competitions.^{[citation needed]}

After a while Nelson left the competition and left his shares of Mr Gay World to Eric Butter, and later Eric Butter and Tore Aasheim exchanged their shares in Mr Gay Europe and Mr Gay World respectively, making Eric Butter the President and co-founder of Mr Gay World and Tore Aasheim the sole owner of Mr Gay Europe.^{[citation needed]}

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 Nolan Lewis from India,^[1][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]

Mr Gay World is defined as an annual contest for gay men, seeking to establish ambassadors for LGBTQIA+ and human rights, with winners of national contests competing as delegates in a variety of categories. Mr Gay World not a beauty contest and there is no age limit. In an all-inclusive move, Mr Gay World has amended its policy to encompass the male-identifying spectrum within the LGBTQ+ community,” said the organisation in a statement on Tuesday, June 15, 2021*. ^[5]

Controversy

In 2014, Mr Gay New Zealand, Mr Gay Australia and a sponsoring skincare company all pulled out of the competition claiming 'bullying, poor living conditions, and inappropriate pressure to hook up with other contestants'. Mr Gay World replied claiming that the two contestants had been removed for alcohol abuse and rule breaking.^[6]

In 2015, the winner of the competition, Mr Gay Germany Klaus Burkart, stepped down seven months later citing “personal changes,” and was replaced by Mr Gay Hong Kong.^[6]

In 2018, Mr Gay World announced that the 2019 competition will move to South Africa from Hong Kong due to prohibition from local authorities.^[7]

In November 2021, Mr. Gay World South Africa 2021 Louw Breytenbach resigned; the title was given to South African Runner-up Bonginkosi Ndima, who then resigned in March 2022,^[8][9] and then Mr. Gay World Philippines 2021 Joel Rey Carcasona took over the title Mr. Gay World 2021.

Titleholders

Year	Country/Territory	Mr Gay World	Location	Entrants	Ref.
2009	Ireland	Max Krzyzanowski	Whistler, Canada	19	—
2010	South Africa	Charl Van Den Berg	Oslo, Norway	23	[10]
2011	South Africa	Francois Nel	Manila, Philippines	23	—
2012	New Zealand	Andreas Derleth	Johannesburg, South Africa	22	—
2013	New Zealand	Christopher Michael Olwage	Antwerp, Belgium	25	—
2014	United Kingdom	Stuart Hatton	Rome, Italy	32	[11][12]
2015	Germany	Klaus Burkart (Resigned)	Knysna, South Africa	21	[13][14]
	Hong Kong	Mass Luciano (Assumed)
2016	Spain	Roger Gosalbez	St. Julian's, Malta	24	[15][16]
2017	Philippines	John Raspado	Madrid & Maspalomas, Spain	21	[17][18]
2018	Australia	Jordan Paul Bruno	Knysna, South Africa	21	[19][20]
2019	Philippines	John Jeffrey Carlos (Completed)[a]	Cape Town, South Africa	24	[21][22]
	Spain	Francisco Alvarado (Assumed)[a]			[23]
2020	Philippines	Leonard Kodie Macayan	South Africa | Virtual contest	9	[24][25]
2021	South Africa	Louw Breytenbach (Resigned)		10	[26][27]
	Philippines	Joel Rey Carcasona (Assumed)			[28][29]
2022	Puerto Rico	José López Duvont	Cape Town, South Africa	8
2023	Guam	Troy Michael Smith		11
2024	Great Britain	Paul Carruthers	Durham & Tyneside & Northumberland, United Kingdom	11

Country/territory by number of wins

In an extraordinary move, the 2020 finale will be held alongside the 2021 finale, creating an Epic Finale in which two winners will be crowned.

Country/Territory	Titles	Year
Philippines	4	2017, 2019[a], 2020, 2021[b]
South Africa	3	2010, 2011, 2021[c]
Spain	2	2016, 2019[a]
New Zealand		2012, 2013
Great Britain	1	2024
Guam		2023
Puerto Rico		2022
Australia		2018
Germany		2015[c]
Hong Kong		2015[b]
United Kingdom		2014
Ireland		2009

1. Originally crowned 1st Runner-Up. Took over the title after the original winner completed his reign.
2. Originally crowned 1st Runner-Up. Took over the title after the original winner resigned.
3. Resigned

Runner-up

Year	1st Runner-Up	2nd Runner-Up	3rd Runner-Up	4th Runner-Up	5th Runner-Up
2009	Alexis Cespedes  Paraguay	Pico Velasco Michel  Mexico	Ben Edwards  Australia	Reece Karena  New Zealand	Darren Bruce  Canada
2010	Byron Adu  Australia	Rick Dean Twombley  Hong Kong	Xindai Muyi  China	Sergio Lara  Spain	Not awarded
2011	Michael Kevin Holtz  United States	Israel Acevedo  Spain	Leigh Charles  Australia	Aaron Comis  New Zealand
2012	Lance Weyer  South Africa	Remy Frejaville  France	Kevin Scott Power  United States	Thom Goderie  Netherlands
2013	Benjie Vasquez Caraig  Hong Kong	Matthew Simmons  United States	Not awarded	Not awarded
2014	Kiriakos Spanos  Cyprus	Robbie Lawlor  Ireland	Luis Vento  Venezuela	Bridge Hudson  Hong Kong
2015	Mass Luciano (Assumed)  Hong Kong	Tomi Lappi  Finland	Not awarded	Not awarded
2016	Chris Krauel  Austria	Christian Reyes Lacsamana  Philippines	Kyle Patrick  Sint Maarten	Rafael Fagundes  Brazil
2017	Cándido Arteaga  Spain	Raf Van Puymbroeck  Belgium	Marco Tornese   Switzerland	Alexander Steyn  South Africa
2018	Ricky Devine-White  New Zealand	Samarpan Maiti  India	Chen Po-Hung  Taiwan	João Pedro Carvalho Gonçalves de Oliveira  Portugal
2019	Francisco Alvarado  Spain	Oliver Pusztai  Hungary	Cjayudhom Samiat  Thailand	Nick Van Vooren  Belgium
2020	Marek Piekarczyk  Poland	Vicente Miron  Mexico	Not awarded	Not awarded
2021	Joel Rey Carcasona (Former)  Philippines	Joshuan Aponte  Puerto Rico
2022	Tony Ardolino  United States	Max Appenroth  Germany
2023	David Allwood  United Kingdom	Dion Alexander  Australia
2024	John Bench Ortiz  Philippines	Poosit Changkaewmanee  Thailand

See also

• International Mr Gay Competition
• International Mr. Leather

References

1. "Could India get its own gay pageant? | Vogue India | Culture & Living | Culture". Vogue.in. August 14, 2013. Retrieved March 20, 2017.
2. dhruba Jyoti Purkait (July 18, 2013). "I'd rather be a freak than a stereotype: Mr. Gay India 2013". hindustan Times. Archived from the original on September 22, 2013. Retrieved July 16, 2021.
3. "Mr Gay World shakes African perceptions". timeslive.co.za. 2012. Retrieved April 28, 2012. Xiao Dai,
4. "Mr Gay World contest goes ahead in Johannesburg despite threats". The Independent. London: INM. April 9, 2012. ISSN 0951-9467. OCLC 185201487. Retrieved April 28, 2012.
5. "Mr Gay World opens contest to all men". June 15, 2021.
6. Bell, Niko (June 29, 2016). "Threats, lies and a gay beauty pageant Mr Gay World contestants accuse organizers of bullying, bias and incompetence". xtramagazine.com. Retrieved August 16, 2022.
7. Chan, Holmes (August 20, 2018). "Mr Gay World cancels Hong Kong event citing concerns over LGBTQ crackdown in mainland". Retrieved August 16, 2022.
8. Tracer, Dan (August 16, 2022). "Mr. Gay World slaps former winner with gag order and it all sounds messy AF". Queerty. Retrieved August 16, 2022.
9. Igual, Roberto (March 24, 2022). "Bongs Ndima angrily resigns as Mr Gay World South Africa". MambaOnline - Gay South Africa online. Retrieved August 16, 2022.
10. "MR. GAY SA WINS WORLD TITLE IN OSLO". Mamba Online. February 2010. Retrieved December 29, 2022.
11. Towner, Myriah (November 29, 2014). "South Shields dance teacher Stuart Hatton crowned Mr Gay World". ChronicleLive. Retrieved October 17, 2021.
12. Nichols, James (September 2, 2014). "Stuart Hatton, Mr. Gay U.K. 2014, Crowned Mr. Gay World 2014". HuffPost. Retrieved October 17, 2021.
13. Wee, Darren (November 18, 2015). "Mr Gay World steps down due to 'personal changes'". Gay Star News. Archived from the original on October 17, 2021. Retrieved October 17, 2021.
14. Salandra, Adam (November 22, 2015). "Mr. Gay Hong Kong Emmanuel Mass Luciano Crowned Mr. Gay World". LOGO News. Retrieved October 17, 2021.
15. Richens, Tony (April 23, 2016). "Mr Gay World 2016 Winner - Roger Gosalbez from Spain". Gay Nation. Retrieved October 17, 2021.
16. "Spanjaard Roger Gosalbez Pitaluga wint Mister Gay World 2016". winq.nl (in Dutch). April 24, 2016. Archived from the original on October 17, 2021. Retrieved October 17, 2021.
17. "PH bet John Raspado wins Mr Gay World 2017". Rappler. May 11, 2017. Retrieved October 17, 2021.
18. Villareal, Daniel (May 26, 2018). "John Fernandez Raspado Reflects on His Year Spent as Mr. Gay World 2017". Hornet. Retrieved October 17, 2021.
19. Schuessler, Bobby (May 29, 2018). "Meet the Hot Aussie Who Just Won Mr Gay World 2018". Out. Retrieved October 17, 2021.
20. Jones, Jesse (May 28, 2018). "Jordan Bruno becomes the first Australian to win Mr Gay World". Star Observer. Retrieved October 17, 2021.
21. Lotto Persio, Sofia (May 5, 2019). "Filipino businessman Janjep Carlos crowned Mr Gay World". PinkNews. Retrieved October 17, 2021.
22. "Philippine bet Janjep Carlos wins Mr. Gay World 2019". GMA Entertainment. May 6, 2019. Retrieved October 17, 2021.
23. "In an extraordinary move, the 2020 finale will be held alongside the 2021 finale, creating an "Epic Finale" where two winners will be crowned". Instagram. May 10, 2020. Retrieved September 12, 2022.
24. Requintina, Robert (October 17, 2021). "PH bet crowned Mister Gay World 2020". Manila Bulletin. Retrieved October 17, 2021.
25. "The Philippines' Kodie Macayan wins Mr. Gay World 2021". ABS-CBN News. October 17, 2021. Retrieved October 17, 2021.
26. Ermac, Raffy (November 8, 2021). "Meet the South African Hunk Who Won Mr. Gay World 2021". Out. Retrieved December 31, 2021.
27. Rogers, Destiny (November 6, 2021). "31-yr-old South African Louw Breytenbach Mr Gay World 2021". QNews. Retrieved December 31, 2021.
28. de Wee, Naledi (December 30, 2021). "Joel Rey Carcasona replaces Louw Breytenbach as Mr Gay World 2021". The South African. Retrieved December 31, 2021.
29. Cooper, Alex (December 21, 2021). "Mr. Gay World 2021 Resigns After Contract Dispute". Advocate. Retrieved December 31, 2021.

External links

• Official event website
• "Official Entry Form for Mr. Gay World 2011". Mrgayworld.org. August 5, 2013. Retrieved March 20, 2017.
• "News". Mrgayworld.org. Retrieved March 20, 2017.
• "SOUTH AFRICA WINS BID TO HOST MR GAY WORLD 2015 - MambaOnline - Gay South Africa online". MambaOnline.com. September 1, 2014. Retrieved March 20, 2017.