Mr Gay World 2018: Indian Man Samarpan Maiti from Kolkata Becomes Second Runner Up
Samarpan, 29-year old, is a cancer research scholar from Kolkata and has become the first India to reach among the top three positions in the competition.
India is still struggling with the acceptability of people belonging to the LGBTQ community but Indian origin boy has made it big on the ramp of Mr Gay World 2018. Samarpan Maiti from Kolkata won the second runner-up at this competition. The coveted event was held in its 19th edition in Knysna, South Africa. Reality TV chef from Australia, Jordan Bruno, won the title for Mr Gay World and Ricky Devine-White from New Zealand was the first runner-up.
Samarpan, 29-year old, is a cancer research scholar from Kolkata and has become the first India to reach among the top three positions in the competition. For Samarpan it was a dream come true especially when the gay community in the country is facing so much discrimination. His parents have always been supportive and while talking to a daily newspaper, Samarpan mentioned how his mother was little disappointed since he missed the first spot.
Samarpan, however, had bagged the first place Mr. Gay World India (‘MGWI’) 2018 Pageant at the start of this year. This win gave him a chance to represent India at the international level. His journey hasn't been an easy one. Talking about his win at the finale, he was quoted, "I found it fortunate that they considered me as one of the role models internationally. The judges were very friendly and they were behaving like we are having good discussion in a conference, I never felt that they were judging. As a competition everyone was so strong anybody could have been declared the winner."
Samarapan will utilise his win and the following fame for the betterment of rights of the people from the community. Back here people did not believe him that he was capable of participation in the competition. Now bagging an international recognition, he hopes the perception will change. Professionally, he is working on developing a cure for brain cancer and will now take activism more seriously.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 29, 2018 09:58 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).