MR. GAY NAMIBIA UNDERWAY

The organiser of Mr. Gay Namibia has confirmed that the competition is underway and that the winner will compete at Mr. Gay World in South Africa next year.

“The Mr. Gay World competition is now entering its fourth year and we feel that our time has arrived to sit up and be noticed,” said Mr. Gay Namibia’s Joe Gerstmay.

Gerstmay announced that Mr. Gay Namibia had launched its regional competitions on the 1st of October and that the national finals will take place on the 26th of November, when the winner will be announced.

“Mr Gay Namibia will then carry the Namibian cause and compete for the Mr Gay World title in South Africa in April 2012,” said Gerstmay.

In August, gay rights group LGBTI Namibia said that it would not support or endorse a candidate in the competition because it feared a backlash from the public and the government.

Should Mr. Gay Namibia compete in the Mr. Gay World competition this would make Namibia the only other African country, in addition to South Africa, to take part in the event to date.

South Africa’s representatives Charl van den Berg and Francois Nel won the Mr. Gay World competition in 2010 and in 2011.

The legality of consensual gay sex is something of a grey area in Namibia. Consensual sodomy is illegal and could be used to prosecute gay men although this is not thought to have happened since the country’s independence in 1990.