33-year-old Maarten Truijen (in the middle of the photo above) from Kinrooi in Limburg Province has been elected as the new Mister Gay Belgium. The contest for Belgium’s most desirable gay man took place at the Elckerlyck Hall in Antwerp on Saturday evening. Maarten Truijen says that his goal is to make the world a bit more beautiful and to spread love.
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Maarten Truijen is the new Mister Gay Belgium
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Maarten Truijen succeeds Joren Houtevels, who was elected Mr Gay Belgium in 2020. The corona pandemic meant that his tenure as the ambassador of the Belgian LGBTQ community was extended by an extra year as no Mr Gay Belgium competition was staged last year.
28-year-old Tim Küsters came in second, while 34-year-old Jonas Defruyt from West Flanders came in third. The were 109 participants in the 2020 Mr Gay Belgium competition. From these 12 finalists were eventually chosen. During the past few months they have followed an intensive programme including a range of workshops.
They also developed their own personal campaigns that incorporated a theme of their own choice. On Saturday evening, the 12 candidates finally had the chance to show the best of themselves in a dazzling show. The jury that selected the winner was made up of well-known Flemish people.
Speaking after becoming Mr Gay Belgium Maarten Truijen said that he had never expected to win when he applied at the beginning of this year. "My main goal was to make the world a bit more beautiful. My intention is just to spread love, a little self-love and love for others. I think the world really needs that after a few gloomy years."
Along with this Maarten has devoted the past months promoting suicide prevention something that he intends to continue doing during the coming year.
“I just think self-love and self-acceptance are the most important values you can have in life. You are who you are. And the suicide part because I think there are still too many people taking their own lives because of their sexual orientation."