The third day of Mr Gay Europe 2017 started off with an early seminar from 2016 winner, Raf from Belgium. Raf spoke about all his duties as Mr Gay Europe 2016 and how he campaigned for rainbow laces in sports around Belgium and in his college where he lectures as his full time job. All the delegates took the opportunity to chat about a winner’s journey and Raf was more than happy to share all his experiences.
The second lecture of the day was presented by judge Shiona. She spoke about respect for each and how she detests the term ‘fag hag’ and that she much prefers to be called ‘a gay accessory’. She asked the delegates what their thoughts were on the meaning of the term ‘respect’ and each delegate brought forward to the table their own interpretation of term of respect from their own unique version of the world.
The third lecture of the morning was by Indian judge, Sushant who spoke about internalised homophobia within our LGBTI community, what it is like to be gay in India and he also set the delegates a debating challenge in which they had to divide into teams and discuss the positive and negative differences between the representation of the LGBTI community within the media.
The afternoon brought the sports challenge and the boys walked to the Pride Park in heart of Stockholm where the MGE sprung upon them the chance to play with Stockholm Berserkers, the number one gay rugby team. They were put through their paces with a tough training regime which resulted in three delegates throwing up. Only the toughest survived.
The MGE Team ended the day in the rain at the Pride Park singing their hearts out to Eurovision acts drenched, content and happy.
Roll on Day 4…