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An ambitious competition pits sexy men in the U.S.A. against
one another and then on to the coveted international title.
 America's "Mr. Everyman" will be a spokesman selected
specifically to raise the visibility of gay men, humanize
gay people in the media, create a positive role model, and
confront homophobia in today's culture.
By Michael Wood
Any gay man who ever dreamed of strutting his stuff on the
runway in hopes of donning a tiara and a sash will finally
get his chance. OK, there may be no diamond tiaras (or high
heels) involved, but the Mr. Gay USA Competition is landing
in Palm Springs and the battle for the bedazzled crown promises
to be as intense as any competition among gay men has ever
been.
"We're not using the beauty pageant model for our
competition," says Don Spradlin, executive producer
and co-founder of the Mr. Gay USA contest. "We have
events outside the realm that show real physical competition
between the contestants." These include endurance tests
like rock climbing and firefighter's training school. On
a larger scale, the competition seeks to be all-inclusive,
going beyond mere good looks and physical prowess. Contestants
should be charismatic and well-spoken, with clear goals,
a level of academic and professional success, and ideally
some accomplishment within the gay community. Striving to
be more far-reaching than perfect pecs, primped hair, and
revealing swimsuits, Spradlin hopes that the contest will
create a positive image for gay men both in the community
and in the eyes of the country at large.
So how did the idea for a Mr. Gay USA come to fruition? "My
partner [Tom Roth] goes to Europe on business and he saw
the Mr. Gay Germany contest when he was over there. He came
back and asked me if I would join him to produce a U.S. version," Spradlin
remembers. That was in late 2000 and the two have been busy
working on the seedling of an idea ever since. "I went
over to Germany as their guest and observed their contest
and really got to see how they put it together and how they
were making their systems work," he says. "We found
that contests in Europe to select a national winner already
existed in several nations, including Germany, UK, Greece,
Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, Hungary and Italy. Some of these
contests have existed for five years or more, and most use
the name ÔMr. Gay (name of country)'." With that
experience under his belt, he felt confident a competition
could be done stateside.
"Our decision to use the name "Mr. Gay" was
based on the fact that we -- here in the U.S. -- wanted to
mirror their methods and production system. Most of these
producers organize preliminary contests in several major
cities in their country and bring the city finalists together
for a national contest," commented Spradlin.
"The last step before really launching this was to
produce an actual contest, so I produced one in San Francisco
and the winner of that contest will come to Mr. Gay USA as
a representative for San Francisco," says Spradlin.
Similar regional competitions will take place in in the upcoming
months in major cities across the country, including San
Diego and a preliminary event in Palm Springs. The hopes
is to lure lots of local crown-seekers into the national
contest to be held this October in Palm Springs. "Each
city producer is doing his own promotion, through means and
connections, and will then submit their finalist to the Mr.
Gay USA contest," explains Spradlin.
"The original plan was just "How do we produce
a U.S. contest that has a legitimate beginning? How to go
from nothing to something?' We had decided that we would
do a minimum of five U.S. cities that had their contests
and then the goal was to pick a USA winner," says Spradlin.
But the idea became bigger than either Spradlin or Roth imagined. "We
were going to have Mr. Germany come as our guest, because
it was just one guy that we knew of, but then we found out
that for the first time there was also a Mr. Gay Europe Competition
happening." Spradlin says the buzz about Mr. Gay USA
spread there and that got the ball rolling into an idea for
a much bigger Mr. Gay forum. The concept of a Mr. Gay International
was born.
Spradlin decided that if he and Roth could convince other
winners from their countries to compete, they would expand
upon their original plan and host an international competition
in the States. It worked. "Four of the producers decided
they would send their guys. So then we came up with the idea
that we would first pick a USA winner, then immediately --
on the same stage -- have the Europeans come out and we would
have the Mr. Gay International 2006 competition," say
Spradlin. This all may sound like a complicated concept for
a contest in its inaugural year, but Spradlin insists he
has been working very hard to conceive a quality show. "When
I was talking about this with my stage director ... it's
basically like a five-act play ... we will pick a Mr. USA
winner and then once that guy is picked and is given his
title, we then have an intermission. We'll change the stage
set, and then [Mr. Gay USA] comes out and competes against
-- what appears now to be 10 -- European winners who are
coming."
Both competitions will be held in Palm Springs at the Riviera
Resort Oct. 7-9. Spradlin says that Palm Springs mayor Ron
Oden was "continually helpful" in getting him and
his partner in touch with "all the right people to make
it happen." "We plan on continuing this each year," he
says. "We have plans to add at least five new U.S. cities
next year and grow this into a U.S. contest that gets bigger
and bigger each year."
The preparation and planning for an upstart contest of
this scope and magnitude are immense, but Spradlin and Roth
knew the opportunity was something they couldn't pass up. "I
think there's this transition in our society about gay culture
that allows us to have this contest. In other words, I think
the timing is right to do this right now. A lot of different
lines have come together, a lot of different values have
changed ..." he trails off searching for the words. "People's
opinions and perceptions of [gays] in society have changed.
It's more positive." He feels that gay men and women
are much more accepted than in the past and he feels a competition
that celebrates gay men in a positive light has been long
overdue.
"Specialty gay contests have been around for a long
time," says Spradlin referring to leather, bear, drag
contests, and others. "The fact is, they existed because
those subcultures within the gay community are very strong
and they're very active." He thinks the gay populace
as whole is stronger now. "Due to all these things that
we [in the gay community] have now -- more exposure on television,
laws that have changed to our benefit -- we now have the
opportunity to look at a Mr. Gay Everyman, or whatever we
want to call it, that's all-inclusive and I'm really focused
on putting that out there. I think it's really important
that we do this. And do it now."
For more information about how to enter the competition
or to purchase tickets to the October event in Palm Springs,
visit www.MrGayCompetition.com.
• Fiesta Cantina: preliminary contest on Monday,
Aug. 1, entrants encouraged to bring an application, available
online, at 9 p.m. for the contest that begins at 10 p.m.
• Fubar: preliminary contest, date to be announced
• I Candy Restaurant Lounge: sponsoring a finalist for
the Mr. Gay Los Angeles Finals, but not hosting a preliminary
contest.
• San Diego and Palm Springs contestants, contact Russell
Poncik at (619) 339-9361.
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