Mr Gay world's Indian entrant faces threat, withdraws from competition

Amidst the growing debate on sexuality, an Indian contestant Thahir Mohammed Sayyed has been forced to withdraw from the Mr Gay World competition which was due to be held in South Africa.

According to DNA, Sayyed's nomination as India's third entrant to the event created a furore in his home town Kochi, which has a sizeable Muslim population. The report further goes on to highlight how the family Sayyed's family has recieved threats from the community incase of his refusal to withdraw from the competition.

"We are concerned for Thahir and his family. Not only are they not reachable on the phone or their homes, neighbours say they haven't seen the Sayyeds since the early hours on Sunday. All references to MGW on Thahir's timeline on facebook are gone. We hope this is not an indication of them being in any trouble because of community pressure," Jijo Kurakose of Queerala an LGBT rights awareness and support network was quoted saying.

Mr Gay World is an annual contest for gay men, which aims to select ambassadors for LGBTQ and human rights, with winners of national contests competing as delegates in several categories.

All references to Sayyed has been removed from the Mr Gay World website. In a follow up report, Sayyed who is a part-time model and fashion design post-grad said, " 'I hope the organizers appreciate the difficulties I faced. I cannot take this pressure."