You thought the big story out of Oslo’s Mr. Gay World pageant was the inclusion of a Chinese contender who entered against the wishes of Beijing? Wrong! The bigger (read: more scandalous) story is that Mr. South Africa Charl van den Berg, the restaurant manager crowned the champion over the weekend, appeared naked in a jack-off video.

Van Den Berg, who is listed at eight inches and uncut, got “hot and horny…and strips down in a warehous” for a solo video from Liberate Studios, filmed and released last year, reports The Sword (possibly NSFW). And when the story surfaced locally last year, as Van Den Berg was named Mr. South Africa and prepared for Oslo, he shrugged off any controversy of his starring role as “Chad”: “If people meet me, they will see me for who I really am and know that what is on the website is not who I am,” he tells South Africa’s Times Live. “Chad was a persona they created. … I did the video in April, way before I thought about entering Mr Gay SA. It helped me financially at the time and I gained good life experience.” What’s more: “Porn is an integral part of the gay lifestyle, it’s just that most guys don’t have the guts to do what I did.”

And it was then, before knowing Van Den Berg would be crowned the winner, Worldwide Mr. Gay director Tore Aasheim envisioned the competition as a means of saving him from exploitation! “Sometimes, within the gay scene there are opportunists who identify these men and promise them a better life and freedom within the adult entertainment industry, in which exploitation may result. Our organisation embraces those men that have found the courage to escape the exploitation in an effort to find a better life.”

The Sword says this sort of statement “insults its contestants, not to mention sex workers everywhere, by dismissing them as squirming, helpless prey, incapable of thinking for themselves, tricked by the big, bad, manipulative gay porn wolf.” Which is a pretty accurate assessment of Aasheim’s remarks, however well intentioned.

But Van Den Berg’s porn gig is less interesting for the supposed controversy it caused than the non-issue it really is. What we have here is an attractive guy who decided to make a few bucks by ejaculating on camera. That there is a market for this sort of thing is the same reason there is a market for beauty pageants: audiences like to look at pretty people, and sponsors (or, in the case of porn, distributors) know there’s a profitable way to distribute this type of event.

So instead of treating this year’s Mr. Gay World as a victim of the porn industry, let’s celebrate him for what he is: A global face who won’t be judging others for their personal decisions. Isn’t that a novel concept?

It’s the very opposite of this notion that had everyone in uproar about Carrie Prejean. He insistence on judging gay Americans — as less than — is what had everyone turning on her. We didn’t care about her risque modeling days and topless photos. And we wouldn’t have called for her ouster if they were the only “controversial” part of her short-lived pageant career. Instead, she attempted to score a crown while harboring feelings of ill-will towards some of the same people she would theoretically represent. And that’s not being a good role model.

VIDEO: Mr. Gay World contestants show off their national costumes (Mr. South Africa arrives around the 5:00 mark):

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