Meet Mr. Gay Iran

From the Advocate.com.

At least one group is disproving Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's assertion that there's no such thing as a gay Iranian. Ahmadinejad said Monday at Columbia University, ''In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country.''

Actually, there's at least one. The 2006 International Mr. Gay competition included 25-year-old Kia Shirazi, who represented Iran. He was born in Tehran and, at the time of the competition, was a student in Canada. (The winner of the 2007 competition happened to be Israel's representative, Nathan Shaked from Tel Aviv.

"He was very courageous," Mr. Gay organizer Don Spradlin said of Shirazi. Living in Canada made the handsome student less vulnerable than if he'd been in Iran, but risk remained. A winner in a Mr. Gay contest in Poland in 2005 was expelled from college when his story appeared in a local newspaper, according to Spradlin. A Serbian candidate resigned just last week, Spradlin added, because a photo of him in the contest appeared in a Balkans journal.

The field of contestants vying for the 2008 crown does not yet include an Iranian candidate, although one early entry looked like a strong contender. That "very handsome" young man was a resident of Iran at the time, which may explain why he backed out without explanation.

Since the Iranian president's remarks yesterday, Mr. Gay Iran's story has circulated widely, Spradlin reports, to enlightening effect. Many people still don't imagine gays and lesbians can look like anybody else, because they've never seen anyone who was openly gay and mainstream-looking. The mass media tend to show gays only when they're dressed up in leather or drag, Spradlin said. Mr. Gay contestants, by contrast, are handsome "boy next door" types, often young professionals. "It's all about presenting non-stereotypical gay men to confront prejudice in the straight press."

Spradlin enjoyed hearing the sound of Columbia students laugh at Ahmadinejad's absurd remark that Iran has no gays. He's concerned, however, that other groups would see things very differently. "I think if (Ahmadinejad) had given that speech at some Baptist college in Kansas, most of the students would have just nodded their heads and said, 'Yeah, he probably doesn't have any gays in Iran,'" Spradlin said.

Thanks in part to Ahmadinejad's comments at Columbia, it's likely that more people will see many gay boys-next-door from around the country at the three-day U.S. Mr. Gay competition next month. The event takes place Oct. 27 in Los Angeles, and will be hosted by out gay comedian Alec Mapa.

Candidates from around the world will compete in the International Mr. Gay finals over the Jan. 19, 2008, weekend in Hollywood, CA. Some of those delegates will likely be Muslim, as they hail from such countries as Egypt, Morocco (pictured, bottom left), Nigeria and Syria (pictured, right), in addition to the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, India, Brazil, Russia, the Philippines and many other nations.