Mr. Gay Canada is not just a title – especially not to Christepher Wee, this year’s winner of the competition. To him, it’s what a person does with that title that matters, and Christepher is concerning himself with making a difference. After being inspired by his friend to donate money and energy into an orphanage in Cambodia that cares for children suffering from HIV, he began to set his sights elsewhere. In what other ways could he help travel the world and make a difference? The answer came to him in the world of pageants.
We were able to sit down and chat with Christepher about his victory, the support form the international community, and what he plans to do now that he has been voted in as Mr. Gay Canada.
GC: How does it feel being the new Mr. Gay Canada 2014?
CW: I’m on cloud one hundred and ten, it’s been amazing! It didn’t really hit me until I got back to the hotel room and sat down – it just hit me. I was on such a high of excitement. I didn’t expect anything and I’m just so overwhelmed. I’m still a bit overwhelmed. The support has been amazing. I won the People’s Choice Award, and that’s by voters online, and I had such overwhelming support from all over the world, especially from Asia. I think in Asia they made a connection, and I got to represent them, and their voice. In that culture you can’t really come out that much. I had so many messages every day on Facebook and on Twitter, thanking me and saying how proud they are of me. And when they found out I won, I got even more messages, I can’t even keep up with them. I’m really grateful for everyone who voted.
GC: I did notice on your Facebook profile that parts of it are written in Chinese as well.
CW: I was working in Asia – acting, modeling, and hosting – so I do have a fanbase there. I wrote it in English at first, and then a lot of my friends in Asia said, you know, most of us can’t read English, so why don’t you do it in Chinese? so one of my friends in Hong Kong, Jonathon, helped me do up a version in Chinese based on what I wrote. Then my Korean friend said, let me help you do one when he was at my place having dinner. And then my Japanese friend said I’ll do one in Japanese. It was amazing, the support I got from my friends and all around the world.
GC: It shows that you have such a great support network, even outside of Canada. What inspired you to enter the contest?
CW: I don’t watch TV, I don’t have a TV, but I was on YouTube and I noticed the Miss Universe Pageant, so I was watching pageants for a few days – Miss Universe, Miss World. The last one I watched, I remember really clearly, was Miss America. The winner was the first East Indian woman to win, and the first runner up was Chinese American, and I was like how amazing! I wondered if there was something like that for males, where we could actually make a difference and travel around the world and do something like that. So I googled Mr. World, and there was, so I googled Mr. Gay World – and there was, and I got really into it and got involved. And I’m here, and I’m so surprised, I’m this year’s Mr. Gay Canada!
GC: You competed against other contestants from across Canada. Were you nervous, prior to the contest, after seeing all of your competition?
CW: Well actually I applied for the competition without thinking about the competition – I went in thinking about making a difference, "Let’s see where this goes." And one of my questions I sent to one of the organizers was, what are the responsibilities of the winner? And the next thing I knew, I saw my name on the list. What I noticed about the other candidates of the People’s Choice Award was that, whoah, these guys have substance, and they’re great guys. I wasn’t nervous about the competition, I was more interested in meeting them and what I could do with them in their city and their province, together. Because we see, in competitions – delegates do it all the time, they work together to create a project. And that was what I was interested in doing. This competition was more about making connections, and I wanted to get involved in the community.
GC: What do you think gave you an edge to win this competition?
CW: I think I was just being myself, like pretty relaxed, you know. What I say is how I behave; it’s what I do every day. The Judges, from the first day they met me to the last day they met me, it’s all the same. I got a lot of comments from the Judges after, that they saw that I was really genuine, and that was something they liked about me.
GC: What are some other goals you’d like to work on for this upcoming year, outside of working with all these different delegates?
CW: I’m definitely going to start researching for Rome - because it is the Mr. Gay World Competition - and seeing what I can do within Canada, because if I do hold the title for the world I want to be ready and be prepared and know what I want to do. That’s something I want to start thinking about, as well as making connections with the other delegates from different nations.
Like Mr. Hong Kong, this year - we hit it off, and it’s amazing. I was talking to him about how I’m Asian Canadian and I hold the Mr. Canada title, and he’s American Caucasian and he holds the Mr. Hong Kong title. So I think that paradigm there is just amazing. That shows how diverse our world is now. Look at Miss America, how amazing is that? So I think we’ve gone into the time where it’s beyond multiculturalism in every nation, it’s about diversity and celebrating that. You know, I don’t think you have to be gay to be in the Mr. Gay Canada pageant, and I’m sure there are homosexuals in Miss Universe, or in Mr. World.
I think we’re so close now, in multimedia and mass media – it’s just a button away and you’re voting for that person, it’s just a button away and you’re face-to-face with that person on Skype. So I will definitely start to research and try to make contact with all the current winners of the countries, and see what we can do.
