Mon 1 Sep 2014 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
Mr Gay New Zealand Troy Williams As mystery continues to surround the last-minute withdrawal of Mr Gay New Zealand from the Mr Gay World contest, a sponsor of the Australian contestant has explained his reason for also pulling out. Christopher Glebatsas cites reasons "ranging from a complete lack of organization" of the contest, held this year in Italy, "through to social media intimidation by people involved in the organizing of the competition." We came into this event believing it would be aligned with our values, and offer a true leadership opportunity," skincare company Lqd says on behalf of Glebatsas, "however we have found this isn’t the case." "Disorganization alone we can deal with, but bringing the bullying issue to the attention of one of the organizers and asking them to address it and they chose not to, is something we can’t accept. "After deliberating over whether we thought this was an organization we could help change for the better by remaining involved, we came to the realization that in our view it needs a complete change of direction and, much more than Chris alone could hope to achieve. He therefore made the decision to withdraw from the event and the competition." Those associated with running the Mr Gay New Zealand event, which produced the last two Mr Gay World titleholders, are understood to be waiting on Mr Gay New Zealand Troy Williams' return from Rome before commenting.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Monday, 1st September 2014 - 12:14pm