Butch Make-Overs

On the new episode of The Tim and Roma! Show, it's decided that Officer Dave and Tim spend too much time talking about Britney Spears and Barbie. They get handcuffed, blindfolded, and forcibly dragged to a leather store. Once there, the boys get a butch makeover by porn stars Corey Jay and Jason Branch.

Watch the fun for yourself here, or get your own butch makeover watching the Top 5 leather gay porn movies at NakedSword.com:

1. Skuff by Hot House. Starring: Kyle Reardon, Kyle McKenna, Jason Ryder, Tom Matthews, Doug Jeffries, Tristan Paris, Gunnar Nielson, Daryl Brock, Tony Zerega, Jason Branch, Marcus Iron, Blake Rodgers
2. Link by All Worlds. Starring: Steve Cannon, Rod Barry, Kevin Miles, Doug Jefferies, Max Holden, Christopher Zale, Cody Whiler, Peter Horne, Mack Reynolds, Nik Angelo, Mike Nichols, Joshua Scott, Mark Kroner, Marcus Lamont, Sean Wolf, Michael Stevens, Mitch Sanders, Jake Andrews
3. Acres of Ass by Hot House. Starring: Alfredo Mossinni, Corey Jay, Cole Tucker, Eric Michaels, Spike, Armstrong Stoker
4. Leather Bears at Play by Brush Creek. Starring: Buster, Jack Radcliffe, Brad Garrett, Jarrod Grand, Wes Adams, Mack, AJ, PJ
5. Leather Report by Colt. Starring: Joe Falcon, Tom Lee, Mark Alexander

New gay porn model: Pete Ross

On Friday I photographed a new model named Pete Ross. I met him at a party where he was "the entertainment". A rope master tied him up in a bodysuit made out of rope and he had to walk around serving canapes wearing little else. I gave him my card as I do with many cute guys I run across, but this time he actually called to set up a photo session.

Friday was the day I was supposed to order a new Powerbook, but as I thought about it, I decided that I really needed a new camera instead. I'd been lusting over the brand new Nikon D70, and it just came onto the market. (In fact, as I was driving to pick it up, my friend who helped me pick it called to tell me he had finally seen one at Best Buy.)

I knew that this guy was going to be so hot, I wanted to make sure everything went perfectly. I spent the day before cleaning and weeding the back yard, cleaned the studio, planned something for dinner, blah blah blah. But at the last minute I get this idea to spend a fortune on an expensive, complicated camera that I don't know how to use! Brilliant move, Maynard. He showed up very cool and professional, and actually tried to make me more comfortable - in my own house!

We took our time and shot all over the back yard, in the studio, on the couch, in the shower and finally in the hot tub. (That's how I get so many tax write-offs.) If you'd like to see him in action, here is a free video clip of Pete Ross giving a sweaty boy a blowjob from Factory Video's Boy Sweat at NakedSword.com.

In the comments, let me know what you think of the photos of Pete Ross or his performance in the free video clip. One comment so far was, and I quote, "homina, homina, homina..."

Full length version of this movie available at NakedSword.
Free sample clips: 350K | 100K | 56K

Gay Pimp

Jonny McGovern, the "Gay Pimp", has a new music video. He's the same Gay Pimp that did the Soccer Practice video that everyone was talking about last year. It looks cute, watch it.

Two Celebrity Outings

I love celebrity gossip, and I'm constantly looking for hints about who is gay. When a famous person actually comes out, it's big news! Many times you have to read between the lines, like why was Kevin Spacey REALLY walking his dog at 4 AM in cruisy park in London. Hmm. But now we have the juice on a famous jazz musician and the foster son of a Bible thumper.

Jamiel Terry, 24, got paid to write his coming out story for OUT Magazine. In his own words, "’It's hard to point to one moment when you begin to come out to yourself, but if I had to, I’d go back to a night seven years ago, when I was 17. I was home from boarding school in my old bedroom at my parents’ house in Windsor, N.Y., where my friend “Johnny” and I had just finished fooling around. Suddenly he asked me, “Do you think we are bisexual or gay?” The question so stunned me, I didn’t know how to respond. I mean, we had been having sex for ages, but I’d always believed I couldn’t be gay: I was the son of Randall Terry, a major leader of the Christian right’s antiabortion movement and now a leader in the fight against marriage for same-sex couples. I’m 24 now and I’m still figuring out my own story."

Randall Terry is one of those anti-abortion nutcases that caused abortion clinic workers to fear for their lives. His rallies featured giant photos of aborted fetuses in coffins. When the courts forced him to stop, he turned his attention to demonstrating at gay parades and preventing gay marriages from happening in Hawaii. Read the father's response to the coming out story, and you'll understand why the kid is in trouble. The father claims the kid still wants to on a "three month retreat to be delivered from homosexuality", even after the article was published. Or watch this movie with a similar theme.

The other celebrity outing has less drama and essentially a happy ending. Smooth jazz saxophonist, Dave Koz has come out in Advocate. He'd been living a completely out lifestyle in his personal life, but it was just never mentioned in his professional life. The occasion to say "I'm gay" just never came up - no potential for blackmail, no skeletons to hide, the people who were important already knew.

I'm familiar with his name, and aware that he is highly respected in his work. Prior to this, when ever his name was mentioned on one of the "Quiet Storm" radio stations (I think there's one in every city), what comes to mind is, "Oh, he's the cute one."

If there was any doubt to his being gay, check the photos from his birthday party. It reminds me of the line from Roseanne, "Thank god for gay men. Otherwise, fat girls would have no one to dance with."

I'm trying to think of a porn movie that involves a saxophone, but came up with nothing. I can only think of one gay porn movie that involves musicians, but it's a sucky punk rock band. And by that I mean sucky in a good way.

There are no more undiscovered fetishes, so where are the gay saxophone fetish movies?

Boxer, Bodybuilder, Soldier

Now class, today we will discuss the homoerotism of three types of male icons:
THE BOXER, THE BODYBUILDER, and THE SOLDIER.

Here is some eyecandy from an upcoming Colt movie, "BIG N' PLENTY". ' Edu Boxer and Carlo Masi will be appearing live in Paris on June 6th at the famous Parisian club named Amnésia for the Paris release party for "BIG N' PLENTY"   Now they can really say "Très Chaud!" (whatever that means...)

Also, I think I will have to visit Adi Ness's photography exhibit at the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco. Click [continue] to read about the homoerotic images of real Isreali soldiers like the one in the photo, or check this gallery.

Adi Nes uses classical composition to portray Israeli soldiers. His photos are lovely, erotic, even a bit disturbing.

Jesse Hamlin, Chronicle Staff Writer
 
Thursday, April 22, 2004

In Adi Nes' version of the "Last Supper,'' 14 young Israeli soldiers sit or stand behind a long, crockery-cluttered table in a bullet-pocked desert barracks. They light each other's cigarettes, pour one another coffee, rest a hand on a comrade's shoulder, share a laugh or gaze into space.

It's a loaded tableau of fraternal camaraderie that, like many of Nes' elaborately staged, often homoerotic photographs, takes on the pervasive image of the macho Israeli soldier. There's a specificity and vulnerability about these 18-year-old boys who know they may not live to be 19.

"I wanted to express the idea that in Israel, death lingers. Death is being foreshadowed in most of these pictures,'' says Nes, standing in front of his huge "Untitled" (1999), which was inspired by Leonardo's "Last Supper.'' About 20 of his big color images are on display at San Francisco's Legion of Honor in the exhibition "Between Promise and Possibility: The Photographs of Adi Nes.''

Israelis, he says, "are dying not only in combat, but in their daily activity -- from bombs on buses, suicide bombers in restaurants. The moment you serve as a soldier, you choose to give yourself over to the society, to the army, to someone else. You have to take the possibility you're going to die. Here, I tried to incorporate the idea that this supper may be the last for any of them, not just Jesus. All of them are Jesus, all of them are Judas, '' adds Nes, whose pictures, with their attention to detail and dramatic contrast of light and shadow, are composed with an eye toward Caravaggio.

They draw on everything from Greek mythology and the Bible -- the bush Nes placed outside the window behind the head of the central "Supper'' figure suggests Jesus' thorny crown; the half-eaten apple, Adam and Eve -- to the films of Jean Genet, news photographs and Nes' own experiences as a gay Israeli who grew up in the "peripheral'' immigrant town of Kiryat Gat, and whose military service included a stint guarding Palestinian prisoners.

Prison is a metaphor for Israel's pressure-cooker society in Nes' most recent series of photographs, commissioned by the men's fashion magazine Vogue Hommes International.

Asked to photograph Israeli men wearing designer clothes, Nes ignored the editor's request not to do anything political. He hit on the idea of posing models in fake prison settings in order to provoke questions about the confining nature of fashion, masculine self-image and contemporary Israeli life.

"I come from a very tough reality, from a country in a very bad situation, with terrorism and the recession,'' says Nes, 38, a slight, gentle, brown- eyed man whose mother immigrated to Israel from Kurdistan, and his father from Iran, in the 1950s. "I open the newspaper and find images of criminals. Personal security is very bad. I felt I can't run away from my reality, to show fashion as something glamorous and not related to my life.

"I had the vision of using prison as a metaphor for daily life. Each of the pictures is a different kind of prison. Not that Israel is a police state; it's a small country, surrounded by hostile countries. A country where you have to learn to live with other people, otherwise it's going to be hell. I decided that different groups from Israeli reality would be part of this prison together.''

One photograph shows three Chinese men in matching red Paul Smith outfits, standing beneath a barred window against a gray, water-streaked wall. Nes wanted to say something about Israel's expanding population of foreign workers and how badly, he says, some of them are treated by immigration police.

This picture "gives a place to the people who manufacture the clothes,'' says Nes, who was thinking about "the story of the people in the Far East who work for $1 a day manufacturing expensive Nike shoes.'' Like most of his images, this one began with compositional concerns. "I wanted to shoot red, and I had Barnett Newman's painting 'Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue?' in mind. Who's afraid of the yellow people? Why do you imprison them?''

You can't tell whether the buffed dude posed in another picture is inside or outside a prison cell. His hands are clasped behind his back, a black Rick Owens tank top pulled taut over his pecs.

"At first glance, it's very tempting, he looks fine,'' says Nes, who came out of the closet when he was 18, the year he began his three-year mandatory military service. "You see the musculature, the 5 o'clock beard. He's attractive. The second thought is, 'Is he a prisoner?' Maybe he's a prisoner of his self-image. He works out every day. He tends to be the prisoner of his body.''

Nes' work has often dealt with masculine identity. The Vogue gig got him thinking about how fashion shapes identity, why we choose certain clothes, how fashion becomes a kind of uniform.

In earlier pictures, he posed uniformed men in settings suggested by classical art, a kind of "upgrading,'' Nes says. With the fashion pictures, "I decided to downgrade them, to take brand-name clothes and take them down into the reality.''

He spends months composing these images and scouting locations with the precise quality of light he's after. He makes mockups of each scene, refines the images on computer -- for purely compositional reasons, he added an extra figure to his "Last Supper" -- then casts the picture with models or movie extras.

When he began making art in the 1980s, homosexuality wasn't openly discussed in Israel, and almost no Israeli art and literature dealt with homoeroticism, says Nes, who found his inspiration in the work of "gay artists or people considered to be gay -- Leonardo, Caravaggio, Pasolini, Michelangelo. You can see the influence of all of them in my work.

"When I started to make art, I decided to find the hidden episodes behind what I see, to bring the hidden layer out to the front,'' continues Nes, who studied at Jerusalem's Bezalel Academy of Art and Design and has shown his work in galleries and museums internationally. Because his pictures are "homoerotic, not homosexual,'' he says, they weren't controversial when they were first displayed in the 1990s, but they stirred up a lot of interest.

"They offered a different image of the soldier,'' says Nes, who describes the Israeli army as the big melting pot of a nation made up of people from diverse cultures (perhaps Israelis are more tolerant of gay people, he suggests, because as Jews they're all outsiders, or "other," in a way). "It was the first project in the culture that dealt with homoeroticism in the army, or reflected the army as a place where homoerotic things can happen. After that came the movie 'Yossi and Jagger,' '' about two gay Israeli soldiers.

Nes served as a military air traffic controller in an all-male unit. Female soldiers had served in the unit, he says, until a male and female officer were found having sex in the control tower. That apparently hasn't happened yet with all-male crews. Some of Nes' comrades knew he was gay, but it wasn't a subject they spoke much about.

One of his pictures depicts a group of handsome young soldiers asleep on a bus, the butt of an M-16 rifle jutting diagonally over their heads. The play of light and shadow was inspired by Vermeer.

If this were a documentary picture, "it would just be sleeping soldiers on a bus, Nes says. "But I wanted to multilayer it. Now, they are not just sleeping, they are dying, too. Whenever there is a gun in the first act,'' he adds, paraphrasing Chekov, "it goes off at the end. ... They're like sheep to the slaughter.

"Look at their features. Their faces are so boylike. You think about the age of the Israeli soldier, and you look at this picture and you understand that there's a person behind the image of the soldier.'' Then there's the erotic element, Nes says, pointing to one boy's Adam's apple, which he describes as "very strong, very beautiful.''

There's erotic-laced tension in the picture of a young Palestinian facing off against an Israeli guard in designer shades. It was inspired by Nes' "traumatic'' experience as a guard at a detention camp where he became friendly -- and attracted to -- a Palestinian prisoner during the first intifada, or uprising, when he was called up for his annual reserve duty.

"I tried to express the idea that whenever you put a fence around the other, surround him with high walls, you put yourself in a prison as well," Nes says. A guard becomes a captive, too.

"I don't believe in occupation. But I can't run out from my duty because I am a good Israeli citizen and know we are fighting for our lives. It's not by accident that these people are in prison. They want to kill us. ... It's a very complex situation. You have to know how to live together with your neighbors. You have to be smart. You have to be sensitive to the other. And sometimes you have to give more than you think you have to, just to live in peace.''

Nes sought to express the Israeli dilemma in a picture of a fang-baring Doberman wearing a studded leather collar from the chic Parisian store Samaritaine, framed by a barbed-wire fence glowing with blue police-car light.

The image conjures up Nazi concentration camps; the studded collar suggests sadomasochistic culture, in which "people want to humiliate each other,'' says Nes, who thinks of the Doberman as Cerberus, the three-headed dog in Greek mythology that guards the doors to hell.

"It asks more questions than it answers. Are we so aggressive, do we keep the territories, because of our past? We fight for our lives because we have no other place to go. Are we more frightened or frightening? This dog is aggressive, he bites you, but he's scared himself. It's all combined into one picture.''

The message of all his work, Nes says, is that "behind every image, there is much more going on."
“Between Promise and Possibility: The Photographs of Adi Nes’’: 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday through July 18 at the Legion of Honor, 100 34th Ave. in San Francisco’s Lincoln Park. $5-$8. (415) 863-3330, www.thinker.org.

A Coming Out Story

I got this email yesterday from a fan of Gay Porn Blog and it really touched me.

We all have our coming out stories, and this one proves that the community still has a long way to go to support our young folks. I wanted to reply back to him immediately, but I thought I'd better not, just in case Mom and Dad have prying eyes. My reply follows his letter. Did I leave anything out?

Subject: Thanks for your work
Attachments: There is 1 attachment

Hey, I just wanted to drop a line and tell you that I enjoy searching through your sight and reading the different articles you have posted. I just turned 18 and for my big ONE-EIGHT my folks gave me a great computer and turned off all the kiddie protection stuff. I promised I'd surf responsibly and I honestly don't look for porn sites. I don't have time for that. But I did find your site accidently when I mistyped a word that ended up referring to or looking like "blog". (Honest, it was an accident....albeit a very fortunate one for me.)

I've only had one experience with guys, but it was hot enough for me to know that it's not going to be a one time thing. Growing up in rural Utah really sucks, but fortunately for me, the experience was fairly recent, so I can look forward to going away to college next year (Stanford) and getting to explore more about this part of me.

It's interesting that when I tell my folks I'm not going to "get involved" in porn, yours is the first site I come across, and yet, your's isn't a site about porn in a smutty or dirty sense. I'll admit I've checked out some of the movies the Covered Sword (sic) people advertise on your site, and I'm glad to see that being gay doesn't mean you're some scarey creep preying on little boys. I can be gay and surround myself with some intelligent and normal (OK, who's to say what that actually is) people. I'll admit, too, that I look forward to the time I can see one of those movies all the way through. For now, though, I'll just have to enjoy the trailers...and, believe me, I enjoy them.

So, after all that bullshit, what I'm trying to do is tell you that your site has helped me to see that I can live comfortably and at ease with being gay, and that all the crap the Mormons heap on gays is just that...uneducated and very prejudiced crap. I can be a good guy and live up to my potential just easily as a gay man as a straight man. At any rate, you've made it easier for me to put up with having to live here a little longer before I start college.

Thanks,

Timm

Dear Gentle Reader:

I'm so glad you enjoyed the site enough to write that nice letter! You make it sound like I'm doing god's work here, but it's really a labor of love (and lust...)

Here's some advice for you:
-It's OK to be gay. Through your travels in the next few years you will meet some absolutely fabulous gay people... and a few stinkers along the way, too.
-It's OK to get turned on or masterbate to erotic images of men OR women.
-If your parents have been good to you, respect their wishes while you're under their roof.
-Be patient. Yes, you've got a lot of angst built up ready to explode, but when you leave for college, don't go crazy with sex, drugs and rock n roll. Learn to balance work and fun.
-Get your friends to vote Bush out, otherwise Ashcroft will regulate the porn industry out of existence before you get a chance to enjoy it!

I came out in the 70's before the internet, home video, Will and Grace, Ellen, and Queer Eye. I led a sheltered, suburban life not unlike yours. There were no gay people in my family, my school or my neighborhood (that I knew of). My mother had a paperback copy of "Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex" that sat on the bookshelf for years. I don't know if she bought it for herself or for me to "find" on my own. Naturally, I went right for the chapter on "Homosexuality". It claimed that gay life was exactly as you feared - "scarey creeps preying on little boys". Yuck, I thought, "I can't be gay, I'm not like that!" The inaccuracy of that book screwed up my sensibility towards gay life as well as millions of others who had no other access to the reality of the big, wide world out there. It took a long time for me to undo the damage, but more than half this country still thinks same sex marriage will bring on the apocalpse.

As for the Mormon influence being so pervasive in Utah, it's happening in other places as well, but for some reason, it's changing in Canada. I just got a link to this study that says, "Church Avoidance Tied to Gay Tolerance" - Canadians are more accepting of homosexuality because they spend less time in church than Americans, says well-known Canadian sociologist Reg Bibby.

Your well-written letter shows how bright you are, and the picture you enclosed (va-va-voom!) leaves no doubt that once you get to Stanford (just 45 minutes from Sodom On The Bay) you'll beating off the boys with a stick. Be good to yourself, the people you love, and your community. Don't be afraid to talk to older gay people, they're not all after your virgin ass, and they can give you more useful advice than the messy young tweekers you'll find in all the bars making a career out of being "fierce" (or whatever the current jargon is...) You can look forward to a wonderful, big gay life.

Please keep me updated! That'll be SUPER!

Big Gay Al
Gay Porn Blog

Forgotten Opera 2004

A tidbit arrived from Spambla The Clown. Forgotten Opera is making a return June 19, 2004. Fun photo links from last year's party are here, here, and here.

Str8 Star with AIDS - Partners Named

As reported in AVN (Adult Video News), straight porn star Darren James has been confirmed as being HIV positive. Click [CONTINUE] to read the whole story.

Why is this news?

Yes, people sero-convert every day and it's sad that anyone should catch the disease. Darren James assumes that he contracted the disease from unprotected sex with a woman in Rio March 10, and has worked with up to twelve porn actresses since that date. What bothers me is that AVN has published the names of all the women he has worked with and all the men that have had sex with them! They have all been placed on a quarantine list. AIM's Sharon Mitchel is suggesting a moratorium on porn production until all parties have been tested.

Straight porn companies seldom use condoms and prefer to have all performers tested before a shoot. AIM claimed that their procedures have significantly reduced transmission of STD in the straight porn industry.

Should gay porn producers adopt the same rules? Would you want your name published for having sex with an infected partner? Would gay porn producers voluntarily abide by quarantines, or production moratoriums?

THIS IS WHY I URGE YOU TO ATTEND THIS CONFERENCE: "Worker and public health issues related to the adult film industry"

UPDATE 4/22/04 - Health officials Wednesday obtained a list of the legal names of 53 adult-movie actors who were known to have had sexual contact with two actors infected with HIV or with someone else who had sex with the two. Details below.

The Day After: Adult Industry Scrambles to Prevent Epidemic
By: Scott Ross
04-15-2004

LOS ANGELES - Yesterday, the day after veteran performer Darren James was confirmed as HIV-positive, the adult industry was attempting to ascertain how far the virus may have spread, knowing that certain knowledge that it the virus hasn’t spread won’t come until June.

No other HIV-positive results have turned up as of yet.

The number of women known to have worked with Darren James during the time he is suspected to have been working while HIV-positive stayed at twelve, where it is expected stay. The twelve women are known as the “first-generation,” signifying their status as having had sex with James, the person who unknowingly brought the virus into the industry.

Adult Industry Medical Healthcare (AIM) foundation is currently concentrating on identifying the second-generation, people that have worked with members of the first-generation on or after the date that James had worked with them. The list continues to grow.

Brock, Dominico, Mark, Sledge Hammer, Brian Pumper, Steven St. Croix, Alex Saunders, Tony Sexton, Brian Surewood, and L.T. Turner were added to the second-generation list yesterday.

Tony Tedeschi, Jim Beem, and Jay Ashley have also been reported as belonging to the second-generation by the production company that shot the scene, but have not been added to the quarantine list by AIM yet.

Talent placed on the second-generation list on Tuesday were: Carlos Mendes, Mark Anthony, T.T. Boy, Sean Michaels, Julian St. Jox, Mark Davis, Jason Zupalo, Duane Commings, Judy Starr and Marco T.

The odds of the second-generation having caught HIV by working with one of the members of the first-generation are less than one percent, but they are under quarantine in an effort to ensure the virus is contained.

A clerical error by a production company led to male performers Trevor and Brad Baldwin were erroneously listed as a members of the second-generation. Trevor and Baldwin performed on the same set the same day that one of the women in the first-generation did, but with another partner.

The women in the first-generation, those that worked with James during the time that he is believed to have had the virus, are under a voluntary quarantine. The women are: Jocelyn, Lauren Roxx, Annie Cruz, Banesca, Persia, Miss Arroyo, Kayla Marie, Jessica Dee, Skyler Banks, Patrice Petite, Candy Ray, and Desiree Clark.

First-generation performers are quarantined for 60 days, the amount of time it could take for HIV to appear in measurable quantities, before taking another PCR-DNA and a RNA HIV test. If those tests come back negative, the first-generation performers will be declared “clear,” and they will be able to return to performing.

The second-generation will be clear once the member of the first-generation that they performed with is clear.

Production Moratorium Suggested

There is still the possibility that members of the first-generation were infected, and that while it is unlikely that a woman would pass the virus to a man it is still possible. And that means that the virus could be still spreading within the industry, because third- and fourth-generation performers are not being quarantined; AIM simply lacks the resources to track that many performers that quickly.  

For the reasons mentioned above AVN recommended a production moratorium until June 8; if no new HIV-positive cases have shown up by that date then the entire industry will be in the clear to safely return to their normal production schedule.

As we published this article Jill Kelly Productions was the only production company to have agreed to have a moratorium on production until June.

Jill Kelly, president of JKP, stated that she knew that some people were continuing to shoot despite the risks, and suggested that those that did so were “idiots with no regard to their talent or crew.”

A handful of companies have announced that they will halt production until the extent of the second generation is known. Cherry Boxxx Pictures, Kick Ass Pictures, The Red Light District, Sin City, and VCA are among the companies that have decided to hold production until more information is available.

“I’ve stopped production, I don’t intend to shoot for another couple of weeks until we see what’s going on,” Kick Ass Pictures owner Mark Kulkis told AVN.com.

What Happened?

Few details are known as of yet, but Darren James is believed to have contracted the virus during a trip to Brazil in March. AIM’s Dr. Sharon Mitchell estimates that James contracted the virus on March 10, while having unprotected anal sex with a Brazilian woman.

As noted previously, the chances of a man catching the HIV virus from a woman are very low, less than one percent. While in Rio de Janeiro, James was bitten by a spider that sources described as “extremely poisonous.” Mitchell admitted that the spider bite may have lowered James’ immune system, allowing the virus to spread easier, but stressed that it was simply conjecture at this point.

It is not known if James engaged in high-risk behaviors such as unprotected anal sex with men or sharing needles during drug use.

James is known to have been tested almost religiously every three weeks. His last two tests were on Feb. 25 and March 17 of 2004. Both tests were negative. On April James tested approximately every three weeks without fail. He tested on Feb. 25 and again on March 17, receiving negative results both times.

Mitchell has not had a chance to interview James regarding how he may have caught the virus.

(AVN Senior Associate Editor Jared Rutter contributed to this report)

UPDATE 4/22/04
HIV probe obtains names of porn actors
L.A. officials say 53 had sexual contact with infected pair

Nick Madigan, New York Times

Thursday, April 22, 2004

Los Angeles -- Health officials Wednesday obtained a list of the legal names of 53 adult-movie actors who were known to have had sexual contact with two actors infected with HIV or with someone else who had sex with the two.

Investigators for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services obtained the list in a visit to a clinic in the San Fernando Valley that tests 1,200 adult-film performers a month for sexually transmitted diseases.

Health Department officials said the list of legal names, as opposed to stage names, would make it easier to track down both the actors and anyone outside the industry with whom they might have had sex.

Sharon Mitchell, the director of the clinic, which is run by the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation, said she had handed over the names only at the insistence of investigators.

"We're not happy about this," said Mitchell, a former adult-film actress who holds a master's degree in public health and a Ph.D. in human sexuality. "The legal names of our talent have always been held in the strictest confidentiality and privacy. We've been persuaded to cooperate."

Mitchell acknowledged that there are potential benefits to the county's involvement.

"The upside," she said, "is that we will know once and for all the bugaboo of, 'Did this reach the general population or not?' "

When adult-movie producers learned last week that two actors were infected, several adult-film production companies agreed to halt filming for 60 days so performers who worked with them could be tested again for exposure to HIV.

Since then, public health officials say they have been trying to find better ways to monitor and regulate the industry.

On Tuesday, the county's public health director, Jonathan Fielding, wrote Mitchell a letter saying his department was "initiating an official investigation of this outbreak" to limit further spread of disease.

On the same day, Fielding wrote to Len Welch, acting chief of the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration in San Francisco, requesting a state investigation into an adult-film company in Chatsworth, in the San Fernando Valley, where the two infected actors, Darren James and Lara Roxx, "performed high-risk sexual acts" and apparently became infected as a result.

Fielding said the most important task was finding people outside the adult-movie industry who might have contracted HIV from those inside it.

"We want to make sure they're all covered, and counseled," he said.

Cal OSHA spokeswoman Susan Gard said her agency could not investigate cases of potential exposure to HIV unless the workers in question were employed by a production company. Independent contractors and freelancers, which most actors are, would not come under the agency's jurisdiction.

The agency could step in more easily, Gard said, if it can be shown that companies have violated state laws that cover injury and illness prevention or if precautions regarding blood-borne pathogens can be proved inadequate.

The California Department of Health Services might have to become involved, she said.

"It's unclear at this point what each agency is going to be able to do," Gard said. "We're really at Square 1."

Joe Gage Trilogy

NakedSword.com signs legendary H.I.S. Video
Site to Debut Gage 'Trilogy'

SAN FRANCISCO -NakedSword.com has inked a deal with H.I.S. Video to roll out both new and vintage titles from the legendary H.I.S. library starting April 12, 2004. Started in 1974, H.I.S. Video has been a pioneer in the gay adult film industry and helped launch the careers of some of the industry's biggest stars, including Rick Donovan, Matt Ramsey and Ryan Idol.

To celebrate the deal, NakedSword.com will host an online tribute to veteran H.I.S. Video director Joe Gage, beginning April 12th with Gage's seminal classic Kansas City Trucking Co. (1976). Each Monday in April thereafter, NakedSword will showcase another classic from Gage's so-called "Road Trilogy" (Kansas City Trucking Co. (1976), El Paso Wrecking Corp (1977) and L.A. Tool & Die (1979) along with three other vintage films from H.I.S. Video.

"The Joe Gage masterworks influenced a generation of adult directors, and well as help shape gay identity in the post-Stonewall era," said Tim Valenti, President of NakedSword.com. "I'm very proud to be able to offer these films on NakedSword."

NakedSword.com has been a leader in gay adult streaming video since 1997. Its innovative membership model allows users unlimited access to its 3,000 online video library, featuring full-length titles from over 100 studios including Falcon, Rascal, Titan, Colt, Hot House, Lucas Entertainment and Jet Set.

Michael Stabile
Media Director
www.NakedSword.com

Full length version of this movie available at NakedSword.
Free sample clips: 350K | 100K | 56K

Adult Video Health Conference

As I reported last week, Titan Media's stated anti-barebacking policy has unleased a lot of controversy from all sides. Many of the major studios have also made their own policies public, including the studios that specialize in barebacking. The accusations are starting to get nasty, including attorneys from the studios making formal responses.

I predicted this may happen, and made a suggestion to hold a conference on the issue. I suggested that studios should meet each other face to face to come up with some industry-wide policies and practices. Soon after I posted that idea on this site, I received the press release below announcing that a conference was already in the works. It appears that the meeting is open to the public (with an RSVP), but they are also open to input even if you cannot attend.

PRESS RELEASE

April 6, 2004

Dear Adult Industry Production Representative:

I am pleased to invite you to a meeting on Tuesday, April 20, 2003 about worker and public health issues related to the adult film industry. The meeting will be from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm, in room 209 at The Village at Ed Gould Plaza, a facility of the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center. The Village is located at 1125 N. McCadden Place, in Los Angeles (see attached map). This meeting will focus exclusively on health issues and solutions pertaining to adult film productions that involve men having sex with men.

The L.A. County Department of Health Services, acting at the direct request of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, and in collaboration with numerous other local and state agencies, is currently reviewing practices and health safeguards already in place in the adult film industry. Based on this information, we will be making policy recommendations and drafting model Illness and Injury Prevention Plans for adult film employers. The aim of this process is to prevent the spread of sexually transmissible diseases among workers within the industry, and from industry workers to their private-life sex partners.

We are committed to working with you, industry workers, producers, and distributors, to develop effective ways to protect worker and community health that also reflect the needs of industry members. To this end, your participation in this process is invaluable. We need your help in understanding current industry work practices, prevention practices, and operations. We need your feedback on various prevention practices we are considering. And we also want you to have an opportunity to meet us, hear more about the process we are engaged in related to adult film, and ask any questions you have.

Please RSVP to Harlan Rotblatt at 213-744-5903, or by email at hrotblat@co.la.ca.us, by Monday, April 19. Representatives from Adult Industry Medical, the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center, the Los Angeles City AIDS/HIV Discrimination Unit, and the office of Assemblyman Paul Koretz, 42nd Assembly District and Chair of the Committee on Labor and Employment, will possibly be participating in the meeting. If you cannot attend, I would be pleased to obtain your input in some other manner. Please contact Harlan Rotblatt as above to make the necessary arrangements.

We look forward to seeing you on the 20th.

Sincerely,

Peter R. Kerndt, M.D., M.P.H., Director
Los Angeles County Sexually Transmitted Disease Program

Easter with The Sisters

Join the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Inc. as we celebrate our 25th Anniversary in San Francisco! Click the flyer for details.

Or, you can stay home and watch porn. AGAIN.

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Inc. is a 21st Century Order of queer nuns. Since their first appearance in San Francisco on Easter weekend, 1979, the Sisters have been accused of "Ruining it for Everyone" with their habitual injection of gaiety into serious affairs including human rights, political activism and religious intolerance. The Sisters consider it their mission to "ruin" all detrimental conditions including complacency, guilt, and the inability to laugh at one's self.

Titan's Bareback Policy

Oh boy, here we go! Let the games begin.

Titan Media has released, what I believe is, the first public anti-barebacking policy statement ever made by a gay porn studio. (Click MORE to read the original statement and their later clarification statement.) I would never have thought that such a statement would cause a controversy, but it has. Mark Adams, of Vidio View, has begun posting responses from individuals in the industry. There are some very compelling arguements made by three studios that produce barebacking videos, but I urge you to read all the statements and come to your own conclusions.

Here are the arguements in a nutshell:

ANTI-BAREBACKING
-people learn by example. It's better to teach safe sex rather than unsafe sex practices.
-barebacking studios are exploiting the issue merely to make money.

PRO-BAREBACKING
-it's a pro-choice issue, just like abortion. People should have the right to choose.
-the rise is AIDS cases is primarily due to lack of judgement caused by drug abuse.

Each side points out hypocrisy whether it's employment discrimination based on behavior, selling pre-condom vintage movies, knowingly partnering HIV positive models with HIV negative models in supposedly "safe" scenes, and not requiring testing.

I think it's time for the industry to hold a conference on the issue and meeting each other face to face to come up with some industry-wide policies and practices. Barebacking producers are not going away, and neither are the thousands of videos produced before the age of enlightenment.

Rumblings around the industry are that Ashcroft is going to be coming after the porn industry and they are going to hit us from an angle OTHER than Freedom of Speech. The new threats to the industry will be in the form of regulating it to death. Health and safety of employees and consumers will be one of the ways that government at local, state and national levels will be make it economically unfeasible to run a business in the adult industry. The industry needs to put aside it's petty differences and develop a united front to prepare for the upcoming war to systematically discourage legitimate businesses from making a living producing adult material.

Who's ready to set up a summit meeting of gay porn producers with health professionals, lawyers, lobbyists, legislators and spin doctors?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
__________________________

Titan Media Public Policy Statement -- "Bareback" or High Risk Behavior

Titan Media will not knowingly hire any model or performer who has
previously appeared in films that depict or portray "barebacking" or
unprotected anal sex.

During our model application process, potential models will be asked
about any previous involvement in "bareback" films. Any potential model
that has performed in any film featuring "barebacking" will
automatically be disqualified from performing in a Titan Media or
ManPlay production.

Models who have previously appeared in Titan Media productions, who have
gone on to perform in "bareback" films will no longer be eligible to
work for Titan Media.

We will however support the continued sale and distribution of
"Pre-condom" adult films. These films were produced at a time when sex
without condoms was not a life threatening behavior. In the same manner
that mainstream films of the 1950's and 1960's feature cigarette
smoking, but yet are still widely distributed and enjoyed, we will
continue to support the availability of "Pre-condom" adult features.

Sex without condoms in these "pre-condom" features was not a heath
hazard and was the accepted behavior at that time. Today's "bareback"
films depict and eroticize high risk behavior as the centerpiece of
their sensuality - risking HIV is the fetish and foundation of these
presentations. We find this to be reprehensible and an attempt to
profit at the risk of the health and safety of performers and the
community at large.

Titan Media was founded on a core principle of eroticizing and
portraying safer sex practices. We recognize that some younger gay men,
and others discovering their true sexuality later in life, may adopt the
habits and practices they see in adult films and then take those
practices and behaviors out into the community at large. Titan Media is
dedicated to portraying and eroticizing only safer sex practices, and
leading by example for the benefit of all.

Titan Media takes seriously the health and welfare of its employees,
models and customers. As such, we cannot and will not condone or support
any performer or production company that produces films that promote,
glorify, or depict high-risk sexual activity in the form of "bareback"
or unprotected anal sex.

According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control), "Abundant evidence
shows a need to sustain prevention efforts for each generation of young
gay and bisexual men. We cannot assume that the positive attitudinal and
behavioral change seen among older men also applies to younger men.
Recent data on HIV prevalence and risk behaviors suggest that young gay
and bisexual men continue to place themselves at considerable risk for
infection with HIV and other STDs."

Titan Media believes that as the leading gay adult studio and producer,
we must take a stand and lead by example. Titan Media is committed to
continuing the efforts to portray and eroticize only safer sex practices
in our productions. It is our desire to ensure that prevention efforts
are sustained and promoted to the coming generations of young gay men
and the community at large.

Bruce Cam, Keith Webb, Harold Creg, Brian Mills
Owners, Io Group Inc. dba TITAN Media

_______________________

Io Group dba Titan Media, PO Box 411345, San Francisco, CA 94141-1345

CLARIFICATION OF TITAN MEDIA PUBLIC POLICY STATEMENT – “BAREBACK” OR HIGH RISK BEHAVIOR

 

Titan Media is gratified by the volume of discussion generated by the release of our recent “Titan Media Public Policy Statement – ‘Bareback’ or High Risk Behavior”. There is some misinformation about our intent that is being generated by others, which we would like to set straight.

 

Our recent press release states that we do not wish to hire performers whose commercial stage “persona” has previously appeared in films that depict bareback or unprotected anal sex.

 

The private and personal practices of performers will NOT be questioned or used in our hiring decisions. The private lives and personal practices of each performer is just that: private and personal. We have no interest in knowing what a performer does in his private life, only how he has portrayed his public and commercial “persona.”

 

When we hire a model/performer, we are hiring a public persona, not the private and personal individual behind that public persona. Most model/performers use a “stage name,” which is a persona or character they have cultivated.

 

We do not hire “John Smith” to work for Titan Media; we hire “Dred Scott” to perform in our features. One is a private individual, the other is a public stage persona created specifically to appear in commercial, adult film productions. The public “character” created by each mode/performer is his “brand” and goes with him in each film where he performs.

 

In the same way that many mainstream companies do not want their brands associated with performers, whose public performances are not aligned with their company’s message, Titan Media is making the same choice.

 

Performers who appear in commercial film productions that portray barebacking are not the type of “performance personas” that we wish to have represent the Titan Media brand, and therefore will not appear in our features.

 

Just as Disney is not going to hire a persona that has appeared in an adult film, Titan will not hire a persona that has appeared in a bareback film.  If an actor aspires to appear in a Disney film, don’t do adult films….and if a model/performer aspires to appear in a Titan Media film, then don’t perform in bareback films…it is that simple.

 

It is up to each individual performer to decide how to market and sell his public persona.

 

We at Titan Media felt that it was important to go public with our policy to ensure all model/performers were aware of our standards when making decisions about the type of roles and films in which they choose to appear.

 

______________________

 

Bruce Cam, Keith Webb, Harold Creg, and Brian Mills

Owners, Io Group, Inc. dba Titan Media

Gay Porn Blog Birthday!

Today is the 1 year anniversary of Gay Porn Blog!

It would be trite to say, "it seems like only yesterday", so I won't. I worked my butt off to figure out what makes this thing work, and I think I have succeeded in doing so. The blogging phenomenon is still pretty new, and when I started, I only had a little exposure to the medium. Thanks to Daily Kos, Fleshbot (Jonno) and Sturtle for being my mentors.

Most bloggers write about very personal things - their cats, what they had for breakfast, and which Britney Spears song they're listening to as they type. This site, however, has a sponsor, so the conversation has to have more direction. It's also got a focus - the gay porn industry. I've veered off-topic many times, mostly for the sake of a laugh, but also just to test the waters. I've gone through phases where I was a total corporate whore, but I prefer to be a bit more subtle in directing traffic to my sponsor. It helps that NakedSword is actually a good resource for gay porn star images, filmographies and trivia. Serious porn fans are insatiable. When they obsess on a porn star, they want to know and see everything there is about him, so sending him to NakedSword gives him an unending supply of jack-off material. As a result, Gay Porn Blog is one of the top referrers to NakedSword.

What's the meaure of success? Besides being my own personal soapbox (which I love!), Gay Porn Blog has introducing a whole new crop of members to the NakedSword streaming video community. Broadband has changed the way people look at porn. Galleries of still images are not enough anymore. Users want moving pictures with sound, whether it's pre-recorded movies or live sex shows like Live and Raw. By discussing a variety of topics, not all relating to hardcore gay pornography, this site is reeling in a new crop of users that otherwise wouldn't know how to find some of the items I ramble on about. Don't believe me? Go to Google and search for "gay porn". This site comes up in the Top 10, sometimes as high as third ranking. Webmasters pay a lot of money for that exposure!

The negative side of this fame is that on two separate occasions, references that I made to non-porn entities have actually ranked higher on Google than their own efforts. The first was a minor celebrity who is openly gay. He appearred on stage in a gay play with erotic overtones and I merely reported on it. He freaked out that his mention on Gay Porn Blog outranked his own website and he didn't want ot be connected with a porn site. Well, honey, you should have thought about that before appearing in that play!

Last summer I wrote about a dating service that was actually quite supportive. Unfortunately, some anonymous person posted a negative comment about the company. The negative comment, which I did NOT write, ranked at the top of Google listings, above the company's own website.

To prevent irreparable harm to both of those sour pusses, I had to delete both of those blog entries.

And do you want to hear some real irony? The minor celeb went to the dating service and wrote a negative report about it! I wish I could link to it, but that would start the whole mess all over again.

Folks, the lesson here is not "don't piss me off", the lesson is, be nice to me and you might get returning traffic ten fold!

Blogging has now become part of my daily routine just like brushing my teeth. I look forward to many more years of providing scandalous and salacious entertainment to all "those wonderful people sitting out there in the dark..." (I BLOG big, it's the pictures that got small.)

I also know that the site is successful because I, myself, have been getting recognized on the street! That cartoon character really works - isn't that why used car salesmen and insurance agents put their picture on business cards? But I won't truely be a success until they make a South Park character out of me!

Please add your birthday greeting to the Comments (unless you are selling penis pills or links to Russian bimbo sites).

Open Casting Call

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact: Michael Stabile
Media Director
www.NakedSword.com
michael@NakedSword.com
415.538.9000 x115

www.NakedSword.com and Jet Set Productions to Cast Porn Soap

Open Auditions to be Held April 20th-21st

SAN FRANCISCO� www.NakedSword.com and Jet Set Productions have announced that they will commence filming on Wet Palms, a hardcore gay soap opera, later this spring. Producers Tim Valenti and Brett Drysdale will be holding open auditions on April 20th and 21st from 10 am � 5 pm at the San Vicente Inn in West Hollywood.

The Wet Palms series, scheduled for an initial run of 12 half-hour episodes, will begin streaming on www.NakedSword.com in early June.

�We�re looking for actors as well as models,� said Tim Valenti, President of www.NakedSword.com and co-producer of the series. �We want our characters to be sexy as well as sexual.� The series calls for five recurring roles and numerous smaller ones, including several non-sexual roles. Porn gossip Jason Sechrest has been tentatively tapped to play the manager of �Wet Palms� -- a fictional residential complex in West Hollywood that will serve as the backdrop for the series.

�This is a new type of production,� explained Jet Set Productions President Brett Drysdale. �We want a new type of performer � one whose versatility isn�t limited to sexual position. There are a lot of good actors in the adult film business whose talent hasn�t been fully realized.�

Drysdale was recognized at this year�s GayVNs for the phenomenal success of Jet Set�s The Hole. The sex comedy�s entertaining premise and much-lauded marketing campaign helped make The Hole one of the best-selling titles in recent years.

�Director Thor Stephans (Sex Psycho) has been tapped to direct the first season, which will run on www.NakedSword.com through the end of July. �Marina Pacific will distribute the Wet Palmsseries on DVD later this year.

www.NakedSword.com has been a leader in gay adult streaming video since 1997. Its innovative membership model allows users unlimited access to its 3,000 online video library, featuring full-length titles from over 100 studios including Falcon, Rascal, Colt, Hot House, Titan, Lucas Entertainment and Jet Set.

Michael Stabile
Celebrity Guest Host
www.NakedSword.com
Michael@nakedsword.com
415.538.9000 x115

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