Mental health at the focus of MGE 2023

Mr Gay Europe wants to focus on mental heath at the 2023 finale.

Surveys show that the LGBT population struggles more with mental health than the general population.

In addition, two of years of pandemic and social closure have led to even more isolation and loneliness.

This, in addition to feedback from delegates and others with whom we work, had the MGE team decide that we will have an extra focus on mental health in the next MGE competition.

We want to take a step back and look at what it is about our mental health that we should focus on.

Starting 2023, Mr Gay Europe will focus on a specific theme each year. For 2023, working with mental health felt very right.

At the same time as we introduce a fixed theme each year, we make changes to the competition with regard to this challenge, which we have until now called “My Project”.

Instead of coming to the finale with a predetermined individual project that the delegate will work on in the coming year, all the delegates must together pick a field within mental health that they believe is important and that they want to work on together.

This process is carried out with the help of seminars and workshops. Here, the delegates will get the opportunity to promote their views, participate in the debate and gain ownership of the project. The delegate who eventually wins the title will then work on the project in the coming year. The other delegates are encouraged to work as ambassadors for the project that they have jointly arrived at.