A Smithers man was named Mr. Gay Canada recently, and he hopes to make the top five in the upcoming Mr. Gay World event and he's asking for his hometown's support.
Rob Goddard was ecstatic with the news that he would be representing all of Canada for a cause that's important for him — promoting equality and uniform human rights. While he now lives in Vancouver and works two jobs as a bartender and as a model, he was raised in Smithers.
"I'm definitely not a small town boy anymore," Goddard said.
Goddard was chosen to represent Canada for Mr. Gay World for his activism and participation in events designed to promote and raise awareness for gay rights. It's a huge honour, he said, and one that means he'll get to take his story to others, an aspect he couldn't be more pleased with.
"I'm hoping to teach and inspire other people and let them know it's okay to be gay and hopefully inspire them to want to fight for gay and human rights, the same as I'm doing," Goddard said.
It's an important message to bring forward, Goddard said, especially to the teenagers. Bullied in high school, he knows how it feels to be singled out.
"I'll be telling them my story, and teaching them about homophobia a bit," Goddard said.
Growing up in Smithers, there wasn't a lot of openly gay people, and while he wasn't "flamboyant" and wasn't displaying the stereotypical "gay" personality, he was still picked on by his peers a bit, he said.
"Growing up, going through high school I was bullied, so I'd spend lunch hours in the library because of it," Goddard said.
It was made all the more tough considering his own father wasn't overly accepting either, but in his senior year, things began to change after a couple of his friends flat out asked him if he was gay. They didn't care, they told him, they just wanted to know, so Goddard said he was bisexual to soften the blow. That seemed to earn him a little respect from his high school peers, and after that things got a lot easier, he said.
"Another hard part that I had to deal with is, I'm like 'I don't even act gay, why am I being bullied?'" Goddard said. "To this day, I don't know why, I think it's just a high school thing."
There is more education in schools nowadays, Goddard said, but it's definitely an important message, and one that he is excited to bring to Mr. Gay World, and their representatives from 26 other countries, as well as to hear their stories.
"We'll be doing a lot of outreach programs there, too," Goddard said.
There are five categories in the Mr. Gay World competition: sports, interviews, leadership skills, a runway show, as well as public voting.
The top five will receive a dog-tag created by a jeweler, as well as the opportunity to travel around the world to educate more people.
"It sounds amazing," Goddard said.
He's relying on the community to help out in the voting. Once a day a person can log in to mrgayworld.net to vote on their pick — Goddard is the man posing underneath the Canadian flag symbol. The event, which is held in Manila in the Philippines, is being held from March 9 to 14.