Helgard Marais, Mr. GSA 2014 Finalist supports Health4Men

In today’s day and age there are many organisations / charities / causes and sometimes individuals that can do with some form of assistance, whether it be active involvement, exposure to create awareness or assistance financially.

Health4Men is a charity very close to my heart as I have been involved with them since their inception in South Africa. They address very real issues for me, in particular providing much needed assistance / specific services to gay men. I visited their stand during the recent Soweto Pride to ensure I show my support and participation around creating awareness off the wonderful work that they do for our community.

Health4Men is an organisation that provides competent sexual healthcare to men who have sex with men (MSM). At the Health4Men sites men can access free STI screening and treatment which includes HIV screening and ARV treatment. A lot of men are subjected to homoprejudice when they access public healthcare, especially when it comes to sexual health.  Health4Men works in partnership with the Department of Health to ensure that healthcare workers at carefully chosen public clinics are trained to be competent in MSM sexual healthcare and their specific needs. Health4Men is also actively involved in prevention and education by doing HIV screenings in the community, distributing lube and condoms to MSM frequented venues and disseminating educational materials.

Health4Men is always present at the major LGBTIQA calendar events. Look out for them at Pretoria, People’s and Joburg Pride where they will be providing free HIV counselling and testing.

Know your status, I know mine.

Helgard Marais, Mr. GSA 2014 Finalist supports Soweto Pride

On Saturday 28 September, I attended the Soweto Pride event. Wow, what an experience it was! Soweto Pride was well organised and supporters came from all over.

The event had a clear agenda and made me proud to be gay. The parade proceedings were peaceful and came with a strong message of unity, a celebration of our sexual diversity and being proud of whom we are. A firm stance was made regarding discrimination towards community members and crimes committed against the gay community, some of whom have been brutally attacked or killed due to their sexual orientation. In memory of those who have been lost, Soweto Pride highlighted how far we have come as a community and the need to stand together as a community to protect our rights and continue to strive for equality and non-violence towards our community members.

I am truly proud to have been part of Soweto Pride and want encourage all other pride organisers of upcoming Pretoria / People’s pride and Ekurhuleni Pride to take note of the true reason we have these pride events. Events such as this past weekends Soweto Pride, results in building community relations, educating others and bringing together all the different sub-cultures within our community to celebrate, socialise and advocate as one.

Helgard Marais win’s Mr. GSA Gauteng regionals

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On 2 September 2013, Beefcakes in Illovo hosted the MR. GSA 2014 Gauteng regional competition.

The event was organised well by the MR GSA organisers and Beefcakes boasted with a full venue during this heat of the MR GSA 2014 competition.

Helgard Marais and Dannyboy Mlambo walked away victoriously as winners of the Gauteng regional competition. The selections for this heat was based on interviews held with the panel of judges, interaction and participation of activities during the day, audience favorites and audience interaction.

Thank you to everyone who attended and came to support me!

A lot of people have asked my why I entered for Mr. GSA 2014 and why I thought I would be a good candidate for this position. So I decided to share my reasons for entering:

In today’s world we are bombarded daily with negative messages, influences, un-just treatment and judgement for our LGBTI youth / community and I would like to contribute towards changing this.

I have a very clear image / perception of what Mr. GSA would mean for me and the qualities such an individual should have:

-       He needs to be presentable and set good examples

-       He needs to have good values, respect, decency and manners

-       He should be mature minded and understand issues around LGBTI communities

-       Young and old, any race or sexuality should enjoy his company and look up to him   because he enriches their lives and others with wisdom, friendship, true care and sincerity.

-       Very importantly, he should have a true desire to use his position to do what he stands for, try to make a difference, be a good ambassador for the LGBTI community.

-       He should be a real person not “painted and perfected” - “Human Role model” – that people can relate to.

Personally I am a lively, energetic individual who thrives on great challenges, hard work, job satisfaction and investing in my mind as much as my body.

I am driven, decent, caring and have a very strong belief in what is right and wrong / good and bad and base my life around 4 philosophies, ethics, respect, honor and trust.

Mr. GSA 2014 should be loved by the people and media and seen as a guy who is constantly on the foreground, “giving back”, “creating new” and spreading some good where ever he goes.

Mr. GSA 2014 should use the opportunity of his title / status to highlight more hopeful and positive issues, and make the LGBTI and other ordinary South Africans look up and stand tall instead of being desensitised. He should spread a message of unity and not isolation though selfless acts of kindness.

 

I grew up in an environment where we did not enjoy the legal protection and rights that the constitution provides for us as a community today. While we have these rights, there are still members within our community that are being discriminated against due to social, traditional, political and religious influences. My aim in entering MR GSA is to be a positive gay role-model for the LGBTI community and stand up for the rights of our entire community here and abroad.