Meet the man behind Mr. Gay Sweden's new era.
Haris Eloy didn't wait for the competition to return. He went to Europe, got the title, and brought the spark home himself. Now he's running the show.
Some people wait for the door to open. Haris Eloy built a new one.
When the Mr. Gay Sweden national competition went on pause, there was no crowning ceremony, no national stage, no moment under the lights. What there was, was a man who had spent years doing the quiet, unglamorous, genuinely important work of making life better for queer young people, and who decided that Sweden still deserved representation. He went to Amsterdam. He competed at Mr. Gay Europe. He won the Photogenic Award, collected it from Vanessa Van Cartier (the winner of Drag Race Holland season 2), and came home with a Swedish title earned the hard way: on a European stage, representing a country whose competition had gone silent.
The spark came back to Sweden because he carried it.
Before the Crown
To understand why any of this matters, you need to know where Eloy started.
Being queer in North Macedonia means hiding. Not as a phase, not temporarily, but structurally, because the alternative carries real consequences. Hate crimes happen and go unpunished. Coming out can mean losing your family, your job, your safety. Pride exists in the face of active resistance. The stigma isn't social discomfort. It's embedded in institutions that are supposed to protect people and don't. Things are slowly changing, carried forward by activists doing brave and exhausting work on the ground. But for Eloy, waiting for that change wasn't an option. He left in order to live.
Sweden gave him room. Not just to breathe, but to turn everything he had survived into something useful.
For the past ten years he has worked at RFSL Ungdom, the Swedish youth federation for LGBTQI rights, across a range of projects both national and international. The scope shifted depending on the work. The core never did. Build what was missing. Support where it was needed. Listen when that was what the moment called for. Act when waiting would cost someone something.
The projects changed. The instinct didn't. And that instinct, shaped by a childhood spent in a country that had no space for who he was, became the foundation for everything that followed.
The Reign
The title came with a responsibility he took seriously.
Over the course of his reign, Eloy showed up. Pride events across Sweden. Conversations with community members, organisers, strangers who approached him because the title meant something to them. He met people whose names he still remembers, heard stories that reinforced what he already knew: visibility is not decoration. For a lot of people, seeing someone like them stand up and be counted changes something real.
"We bring love, uniqueness, and a fierce desire to stand on our own."
That conviction travelled with him to every event, every panel, every room he walked into as Mr. Gay Sweden.
Amsterdam
The Mr. Gay Europe competition in Amsterdam was, as Eloy puts it, "visibility with purpose." A competition, yes. But also a gathering of people who understand that being on a stage in a sash is a political act in most of the world, whether the audience clocks it as one or not.
He competed with stylist Peter Englund and a team behind him. He formed friendships with contestants who shared his seriousness about what the platform could do. And when the Photogenic Award was announced, with Vanessa Van Cartier (the winner of Drag Race Holland season 2) doing the honours, he didn't reach for words that would match the magnitude.
"All I remember is that I was happy."
Clean. Earned. His.
To the Future Candidates
If you're thinking about putting yourself forward for Mr. Gay Sweden, Eloy has something to tell you, and he's not going to dress it up.
It's harder than it looks. The title is visible. The work behind it is not. You will show up to things tired. You will represent in rooms where you don't feel represented yourself. You will be asked to be articulate, composed, inspiring, and photogenic, often on the same afternoon.
And it is worth it. Completely.
"For the new misters stepping into this, I am here to mentor and guide." That's not a formality. Eloy has done the European stage, done the reign, attended the prides, had the conversations. He knows what the role asks of you. He's building a structure around it that takes that seriously.
Come with purpose. The rest, you'll figure out.
The New Era
Eloy has signed as Executive Producer of Mr. Gay Sweden, working alongside Navid Kabiri, who leads sponsor relationships and competition logistics. Together, they are building something that Sweden's LGBTQI community deserves: a show with care and intention at its centre, and real community involvement in how it takes shape.
Mr. Gay Sweden is back. The national stage is returning. And the person running it didn't wait around for permission to love this community out loud.
The new era is already underway. You're reading the beginning of it.