Personal trainer Ricky Devine White has been crowned Mr Gay New Zealand.
The 36-year-old from the New Zealand region of Marlborough took home the title in Auckland on Sunday, and said he wants to use the new platform to advocate for LGBTIQ inclusion and equality.
“I now can be an ambassador and a voice for the LGBTIQ community and really speak to some of the prevalent issues that we have in our community,” he told Stuff.co.nz.
“I’m trying to take [the title] to the world and promote how wonderful it is to be in New Zealand and to be such a forward-thinking country.
“One thing that I’m really passionate about is fighting for human rights.
“For me, I would say that in time, what we perceive as normal now, we won’t have to use the phrase ‘gay’ anymore. For example, gay marriage will just become marriage.”
He added to New Zealand’s AM Show, “In 20 years, I want New Zealand to not actually have the word ‘gay’ so that it becomes a society where there’s no ‘gay’, ‘bisexual’ or ‘transgender’.
“We’re all just one people.”
He told the program he came out at age 21 when he was on deployment with the Royal New Zealand Navy.
“I came out while I was on ship. I was in a very small place sharing a room with 16 other guys,” he said.
“The navy was a place where there’s so much comradeship and so much support so it was easy.
“Some of the older sailors definitely had a lot of questions: ‘What does it mean to be gay? Have you been gay all the time? Is it a decision?’
“The New Zealand Navy is really accepting.”
Devine White is a passionate advocate for HIV testing, and recently modelled with his husband Arthur in an awareness campaign for the New Zealand AIDS Foundation.
He’ll go on to represent New Zealand at the Mr Gay World pageant in South Africa in May.
The competition will see contestants from 34 countries, including Australia’s Jordan Bruno, vie for the title of Mr Gay World and become a spokesperson for global LGBTIQ equality.
