PRESENTING - STERLING RICHARD, Face of MyGayToronto.com
There certainly could not be a new online Gay Lifestyle Magazine for the gay community without its own Face of MGT, and Sterling Richard is the perfect fit. During his photo shoot for MGT, where he was being shot by Felix Wong with styling by Katie Scanlan and Reni Jousif of Judy INC, I caught up with Sterling to find out a few things about him, which was much easier after I realized that I had his name backwards (“Everybody always mixes them up so you get used to it”). First things first, tell me about yourself!
I'm a 28 yr old who loves living in the city. I love hanging out with friends and going out on weekends to a local bar or club. I work for an Advertising Firm downtown and try to get out every chance I can to see what this beautiful city has to offer.
How did you get involved to be Face of MGT? Two of my good friends created this website and asked me to be Face of MGT and was excited for the opportunity. I think it's great because Toronto doesn't have an informative site for gay people that doesn't include porn or chat rooms, but rather useful information not just for gay people living in the city but anyone who is travelling to Toronto and wants to know what to do here.
How will you deal with being recognized! People will go to stuff listed on the website after seeing your face and will run up to you shouting "That's the guy from MGT!" Will you sign autographs?
As for me getting recognized I get a taste of that now but I’m sure not to the extent of how much I will now but I’ll take it all in stride, I don't mind it at all and I find it very flattering. But no autographs/no pictures, no pictures. [laughs]
How do you feel about the gay community in Toronto being seen mainly as Church/Wellesley area?
I think people look at Church/Wellesley differently then they used too. The Church/Wellesley gays are moving further and further away from the village which is a great. I see more and more straight people with families and other people just curious as to what "the village" is and what goes on here.
What's a favourite place for you to have coffee/drinks/dinner, etc?
If I do go out on weekends then you can sometimes find me at Woody's/Straight or Fly depending on my mood. For a good dinner I'll head to various parts of the city as we are a multi-cultural city so there’s lots of food to choose from--but Italian tends to be my favorite choice.
You can view the behind-the-scenes video of Sterling’s photo shoot, swimwear by Skmpeez(http://www.skmpeez.com/), via the video player that you can locate at the bottom left of GMT homepage.
First things first, tell me about yourself!