Porn Flicks or Virtual Coliseum?

via HuffPost Gay Voices, by John-Manuel Andriote

Pornographers are aroused and growling over a new Los Angeles law that will require adult film actors to wear condoms in sex acts well known to be high-risk for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.

The filmmakers call the new law "government overreach."

They argue that monthly HIV tests should be sufficient to prevent the virus from slipping into the mix of fluids splashing about the set and unwittingly infecting an actor while on the job.

The Los Angeles Times reported that companies are threatening to move out of the city, taking with them as many as 20,000 jobs for actors, makeup artists, camera crews, caterers, and the abundance of talent and services that makes L.A. a magnet for movie makers of all sorts.

The Los Angeles City Council passed the law, which takes effect March 5, after reports of actors becoming infected with HIV while pursuing their line of work.

Former adult film actor Derrick Burts, who tested HIV-positive in 2010 and was told he was infected by a fellow performer, was quoted in the Times as saying, "It's a broken system that they have in place. What performer wouldn't want to feel more safe on a work set?" Burts backs mandatory condoms.

Filmmakers argue that requiring actors to use condoms will hurt their sales. "The viewers out there don't want to see movies with condoms," Steven A. Hirsch of Vivid Entertainment told the newspaper.

Since the early AIDS years, HIV-prevention educators have argued that porn can play an important role in modeling and eroticizing safer sex -- or, to the contrary, reinforcing the idea that only "bare" sex is real sex.

The Times quoted Michael Weinstein, president of Los-Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, as saying, "The fact that porn sends out a message that the only type of sex that's hot is unsafe ... we think that's detrimental."

AHF has lobbied the city since 2010 to require condoms in the adult movies made there.

The L.A. public health department in 2010 estimated that condoms and other protection are used in fewer than 20 percent of hardcore heterosexual pornography.

The department also reported that adult film workers are 10 times more likely to be infected with an STD than a non-adult-film worker.

"Unlike Hollywood films where there is sex or violence that is simulated," Weinstein said in an email, "in porn, real actors are being infected with real STDs, and the audience knows it.

Therefore, they are thinking that the hottest guys do it raw and only geeks use condoms."

In the early years of AIDS, gay pornographers who wanted to sell movies understood the influence that their products can have in shaping not only the sexual fantasies but the actual behavior of gay men.

The late Chuck Holmes, founder and president of industry giant Falcon Studios, told me in a 1995 interview, "No responsible gay erotica producers would ever make a decision [not to use condoms].

They'd be drummed out of the business because the models wouldn't talk to them, the distributors wouldn't touch it."

Times have changed. By the middle of the past decade, an increasing number of gay erotica producers were not only making "bareback" movies, but they felt no responsibility whatsoever to their actors -- or their audience.


Read the rest

L.A. To be First City to Mandate Condoms in Porn?

via Queerty, by Evan Mulvihill

A measure that would require actors in porn films to wear condoms qualified to be on the ballot next June in L.A., the adult-film capital of the United States.

The AIDS Healthcare Center collected around 71,000 signatures for the measure, almost double the 41,000 needed to get on the ballot.

Although condom usage is fairly widespread in mainstream gay porn, most major straight-porn companies don’t use them consistently.

Rising tensions about AIDS in the porn industry have reached a fever pitch in the past year: An AIDS scare based on a positive result from star Derrick Burts put a halt on the entire U.S. porn industry this August.

Just a few weeks ago, the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation, a testing center partially funded by the porn industry, was shut down after being criticized by Burts and called a “sham clinic” by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

The ballot initiative has its detractors: L.A. City Atty. Carmen Trutanich says she believes the issue is for the state to regulate, not the city or county, and has filed papers saying so.


Read the rest

Risky Business: Bareback Sex

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Can Magnetic "Gut Breeders" Be Role Models Too?

via Bay Area Reporter, by Seth Hemmelgarn

Porn company's 'role models' draw concerns of AIDS advocates
   

The pornography company Treasure Island Media is promoting a couple that includes an HIV-negative and an HIV-positive partner having unprotected sex as "role models." They are believed to be the first sero-discordant barebacking couple to be advertised as porn stars.

According to a Treasure Island statement, the acting couple's James Roscoe is HIV-positive, while Brad McGuire is HIV-negative. In a scene featuring Roscoe and McGuire on a Treasure Island website, Roscoe is the receptive anal sex partner or bottom.

"The two are a real-life, long-term, promiscuous, bareback couple," stated the company in a press release.

In the statement, which was dated October 27, Paul Morris, the studio's owner, spoke of demolishing "the HIV-positive closet" and said, "We know exactly what we're doing and we will not allow reactionary individuals and organizations to dictate our behavior. James and Brad are fitting role models for young gay men. They are living their lives with honesty and integrity."

Read the rest.

Brent Corrigan FUKs !T

Porn star Brent Corrigan puts his early appearances in bareback films behind him and partners with D.C.–based STD prevention group FUK !T for a series of instructional videos on proper condom use.

"He has long since become an advocate for safer sex and has very publicly apologized for his past appearances in films depicting unsafe sexual practices."



Click here for the video


Read more about it on the Advocate. 

Time for porn stars to self-organise

via guardian.co.uk, by Thierry Schaffauser

The gay porn industry, like its straight counterpart, is normalising unsafe sexual practice and ripping off its actors

I  have been working in the British gay porn industry for almost two years now. On average, we earn £300 for a scene, which may seem a lot based on other jobs' hourly rates, but given that you're not shooting films often, you can't really make porn your main occupation. Unless they are famous and popular, most porn actors have to do other jobs within or outside the sex industry.

Read the rest.

Resilient?

Fantasies have to be expressed, channeled

If I was more inclined to have anal sex more, especially receptively, I would probably be more inclined to do it raw, because of my eroticization of raw sex.

by Charles Stephens
Read more LifeLube posts from Charles

I am a 29-year-old black gay male and I’m HIV-negative.

Of the group of gay men I came out with, three have died, and I am now one of the few left in my social network that’s still HIV-negative.

I don’t see my being HIV-negative as the result of “good choices,” I’ve made, verses “bad choices,” I’ve avoided. I don’t see being HIV-negative as a prize for good behavior. To me it’s been more a matter of inclination, even if this inclination has produced a kind of “resilience factor,” for me.

I have sought to have a fulfilling, open, and interesting sexual life, and remain HIV-negative along the way. To some degree I think I’ve managed to achieve this, even as I’ve created boundaries for myself. I believe that my being HIV-negative has to do, more than anything else, with my lack of receptive raw anal sex, and my overall ambivalence around anal sex in general. To be more clear, if I was more inclined to have anal sex more, especially receptively, I would probably be more inclined to do it raw, because of my eroticization of raw sex. My lack of engagement with receptive anal sex has more to do with the discomfort it causes me, rather than some moral stance, so the logistics of the act, creates a kind of covert protective factor. But I still eroticize anal sex, particularly raw anal sex, even though I do it infrequently, and have sought ways to channel those desires in a different direction.

I yearn for other HIV-negative gay men to tell their stories, and share their strategies, especially those like me, that don’t like condoms, eroticize semen, exist in high prevalence HIV sexual networks, and develop strategies to remain HIV-negative.

My rule for the most part is to keep semen out of my mouth and ass. And if I choose to indulge in that particular pleasure, I would identify strategies to do so that would reduce my risk along the way. Even though I don’t think sex is ever completely rational, I do believe I can be deliberate and intentional.

I think bareback porn could potentially be an HIV prevention strategy.

Once I was with a guy that wanted to penetrate me condomless. I did not want to do it. Or rather I wanted to do it, but chose not to do it. This has not been the case every time, but was the case this time. We ended up masturbating together, while he narrated to me his fantasy of barebacking with me, ejaculating inside me, feeling the inside of me raw. I found this extremely powerful and the fantasy hot. We were able to engage in a very intense way, our sexual fantasies, without actually doing it, all the way. Our orgasms were powerful, even if his semen was collected on to his bellybutton and not in my rectum. I also watch bareback porn, gay and straight, and find that an effective way to channel my desires. I think bareback porn could potentially be an HIV prevention strategy. Fantasies have to be expressed, channeled. Must be. In the theater of the erotic arts, we have an opportunity to witness visually the sexual archetypes and fetishes that structure our psyches and animate our fantasies. Those are two imperfect strategies that I have found effective for the moment.

The gap that I’ve found in HIV prevention, is the lack of engagement around HIV-negative men that remain negative. Eric Rofes years ago, called for support groups for HIV-negative gay men. Spaces. This still has not happen on a large scale, and I believe strongly that it’s necessary.

Thus, I’m calling for an HIV prevention agenda for gay men that would include three things:

(1) An exploration of how gay men, particularly black gay men, have remained and continue to remain HIV-negative, especially those like me, that have a dissaffinity for condoms. What strategies have they used? Those that has existed in and fucked in sexual networks and contexts with high HIV prevalence that remain negative should be studied and interviewed rigorously. Urgently.

(2) An STI prevention workshop for gay men that like to have raw sex. Not just a list of strategies or tips, but a workshop, that can be replicated within community-based organizations and centers for gay men targeting gay men that bareback.

And (3), spaces for gay men that are HIV-negative that can talk about their ambivalence, their desires, and their challenges in a supportive and affirming environment.

Is there some resilience I have that has guided me, facilitated my remaining HIV-negative? I don’t know. I’ve been thinking a lot about this since the brilliant Walt Senterfitt referenced the notion of resilience to me, and it’s value in thinking about gay men’s sexual health. One thing is for sure, the notion of resilience in gay men’s health, and not just as it relates to sexual health but also mental health and other realms, could provide some really valuable strategies as we map out our collective destiny.

Charles Stephens is an Atlanta-based gay men’s health advocate and writer.

Risky Business Podcast is LIVE - WHAT IS YOUR OPINION OF BAREBACKING?

via Feast of Fun

On today’s special edition of Feast of Fun, we’re teaming up with Lifelube and Project Crysp in conjunction with the 2009 National LGBTI Health Summit to bring you Risky Business- a raw discussion with a live audience at the Center on Halsted on the sex and intimacy we crave and the risk we’re willing to take.

How do adult films with bareback sex affect our sexual desires and practices?

Are videos depicting sex without condoms a hot but safe way for viewers to find pleasure or is it a dangerous normalization of risk?

We have a panel of experts here to break down the ins-and-outs of condomless sex.

Tony Valenzuela, Writer and Activist whose work focuses on the politics of gay sex, subcultures and assets based perspectives. He’s known as AIDS activism’s most misunderstood man.

Mufasa Ali, Minister and Activist, as well as co-founder of ONYX, a leather group for men of color.

Dr. Braden Berkey, Clinical psychologist whose practice focuses on gay men, and the director of the Center on Halsted’s Sexual Orientation and Gender Institute.

Chuck Renslow, the founder of International Mr. Leather Conference and Convention, was in the audience to talk about why he recently banned bareback porn at IML and the future of the ban.

This is a frank talk about the kind of sex men have in real life and how they “seroadapt” or reduce sexual harm.

For many people, this is just the start of the conversation surrounding sex without condoms, it is not the final word. If you have any questions or insight, please leave a comment and keep the conversation going. Please be respectful and refrain from personal attacks, inflammatory remarks or general hysteria.

Listen to the podcast.

Check out photos from the forum.

Daniel Reeders on "Risky Business"

The little forum that could...

via Trevor's blog, by Daniel Reeders


Check out pics from the event here.



I'm enjoying the free wifi and replica designer furniture at the Centre on Halsted, marvelling at this amazing space, and the contradictions of American culture.

On my way here, I passed a huge billboard on N Halsted, warning that hotdogs kill. Cancer, you see. The message: not eating in moderation, but total hotdog abstinence.

I'd just had breakfast, which like almost every other meal I've had here, came with a huge, unbidden helping of fried potato. The enormity of the normal serving size here is deadly -- through diabetes and heart disease -- but exception was being made of a single food.

Instead of saying "eat less, mostly vegetables", there's a billboard for a single illness targeting a single food. Somewhere else, a diabetes agency has no doubt done a billboard about corn syrup (rather than declining bottomless refills).

I've been here five days and I'm already feeling swamped by a myriad of health messages. Almost invariably they are phrased as Don't Do X. None have sought to communicate skills and ideas for managing the complexities of your own health.

On Monday night I came to the Centre on Halsted for a forum about barebacking, called Risky Business, moderated by Fausto Fernos and Mark Felion from Feast of Fun - the top gay podcast on iTunes! - featuring Tony Valenzuela, Rev Musafa Ali and Dr Braden Berkey.

And something similar was happening. Rather than talk about pleasure, unsafe sex without the label, or the complexities of sexual negotiation in a mixed poz/neg sexual world, co-presenters Fausto and Mark sought a consensus: Don't Do Bareback.

The audience rebelled. Keith Green, someone I've long admired for his contributions to Lifelube and the Gay Men's Health Summit online community, challenged the panel: the subtitle for the event is "reclaiming pleasure" - why can't we talk about that?

Read the rest.

Dangerous Dialogue - Keith Ecker Reflects on "Risky Business"

LifeLube hosted a community forum last evening - at the Center on Halsted - to discuss bareback sex, bareback porn, and the reclaiming of pleasure. The Feast of Fun (Fausto Fernos and Marc Felion) moderated, and panelists Tony Valenzuela, Mufasa Ali, and Dr. Braden Berkey engaged the topic.

Audience member and writer Keith Ecker (pictured below right) was motivated - he tells LifeLube - to write the longest post of his blogging history. Here is an excerpt, with a link to the whole shebang.

Another point from the forum: Many people were upset that there was not talk of reclaiming pleasure, as the title of the forum suggests. These people didn’t come to hear about safer sex. They knew that message. After all, it’s been trumpeted for years. And I can’t blame them. This wasn’t a forum to discuss new approaches to HIV/STI awareness (though I really would love to have a roundtable about that cause I got some ideas brewing). This was a forum to discuss pleasure, and all we’ve been talking about is whether to condemn or condone barebacking. Sadly, despite audience members pleads to steer the conversation in their direction, little effort was made, as the hot-button topic of barebacking overshadowed the pleasure conversation. However, I have to commend one audience member. He stood up and discussed how we should shift the dialogue from safer sex/barebacking away from the ass altogether. Why not eroticize something less likely to spread disease, like the scent of a man or armpits or back hair?

And he’s right. All too often us gay men are so fixated on our assholes that it’s a surprise we can’t see our heads are firmly planted up them. If we continue to characterize the safer sex conversation solely about the butt and putting on a condom, then we are going to forever use the same old tired tactics we’ve been using for a couple decades, tactics that have proven ineffective. Let us move away from staring at our buttholes and let us talk about how sex can encompass more than just penetration. Having a man thrust in and out of you might feel just fine, and it’s kind of hot to emulate those movies we see flashing on our computers, in bars and on our video iPods that we secretly view on public transportation. But lets not have porn dictate our dicks. Let’s put the power in our own hands, so to speak, and let’s re-define gay male sexuality. I’m not saying let’s get rid of anal sex. I’m just saying we should expand our vocabularly, and we should celebrate this expansion. Otherwise we will forever be doomed to say the same sentence over and over and over (”Use a condom. Use a condom. Use a condom.”), and this message will surely fall on tired, deafened ears.

Read all of his post.

Read his piggyback, follow-up post.

Read his apology post.

The forum was podcasted and will be posted on the Feast of Fun site in the coming days. In the meantime, there were a number of folks Tweeting throughout the forum and you can read the very interesting thread - #FoFRisky - here.

[Dr. Braden Berkey, Marc Felion, Mufasa Ali, Fausto Fernos, and Tony Valenzuela]

Men Who Bareback Should Be Made Partners in Health Promotion, Not Banished

Nice post on Trevor Hoppe's blog by Tony Valenzuela. Don't forget to come hear Tony speak at Risky Business on August 17th!



The tone of the online debate has been, well, impolite following the announcement by International Mr. Leather to ban the promotion and distribution of bareback porn at the weekend event's leather marketplace.

"Fascists. No wonder they like uniforms," wrote a man identified as Liam Cole reacting to the ban on Treasure Island Media's blog "You're just a bunch of sick people who need help," countered an anonymous poster on the same blog.

On August 17th at 6 pm at the Center on Halsted in Chicago, I will be sitting on a panel called "Risky Business? Reclaiming Pleasure," to discuss what effect bareback porn has on men's desires, fantasies and behaviors. The forum is not about IML's ban but will throw a wider net on the discussion of porn, sex without condoms and desire.

As a guest on Trevor's blog, I'd like to focus here on the IML ban that, once again, brought into focus the raw feelings that surface when gay men talk about raw sex. I should state my opinion up front: I disagree with IML's decision, don't believe it will affect behavior, and fear it will further marginalize a group of high risk men who need to be brought under the tent of community wellness, not banished.

"I never thought I'd see the day that IML is used as a vehicle for censorship," said one anonymous source at the Chicago Free Press website. "I don't like being treated like a child at an adult event." Disputing this charge was Colin at Gay Men's Social Crisis blog (GMSC) who said, "I have a hard time with this [censorship] argument. I find bareback porn in direct conflict with health education, even if it does present what can and should be recognized as a fantasy scenario."

Maybe the better question isn't whether or not IML's new policy is censorship - it is by definition - but whether censoring bareback porn from the IML marketplace, however offensively this may strike some of us, is worth the presumed outcome of "social responsibility" and health?

Read the rest at Trevor Hoppe's blog.

Lost generation: Are modern HIV campaigns failing younger gays?

via Pink News, by Ramsey Dehani

As someone reminded me recently, people born in the early nineties are now reaching adulthood. It is safe to say that these younger gays will not remember the images of the AIDS scare in the 1980s and 1990s.

With modern HIV advertising focusing less on condom use, are the younger generation being ill-advised on the dangers of unsafe sex?

The Terrence Higgins Trust (THT), Britain's largest sexual health charity, has recently launched a campaign called 'THIVK' aimed at knowing your HIV status and getting tested. It is the first 'testing' campaign in ten years.

Advertising advocating condom use has become harder to find, with many gay magazines containing none at all.

THT itself has come under scrutiny over its refusal to use hard-hitting campaigns because it does not want to "demonise" HIV sufferers.

The modern promotions are a world apart from the infamous 'tombstone' and 'iceberg' ads of the 1980s.

But it appears many people still "die of ignorance". With infection rates among gay men climbing 110 per cent between 1999-2007 (1,450 cases to 3,050), there is an argument for more hard-hitting campaigns.

I spoke to a 20-year-old gay student about his views on safe sex. He said: "Condoms are really important. I always try to use them." But he added: "Sometimes I forget though, especially when I'm drunk."

Read the rest.

***Interested in how porn, and bareback porn, affects our sexual desires and practices? Are videos depicitng edgy sex a hot but safe way to get off, or does condomless porn signal a dangerous normalizing of risk? Join us for "Risky Business - Reclaiming Pleasure" - a live podcast forum at the Center on Halsted this coming Monday, August 17. Click here for more info, and to RSVP for this free event. We will talk about the kind of sex, intimacy, fantasies and pleasure we crave, and how we can get there.

AUGUST 17 - Join us for a raw discussion on sex, intimacy, and fantasy

How does porn – and bareback porn – affect our sexual desires and practices? Are videos depicting edgy sex a HOT but safe way to get off for viewers or does condomless porn signal a dangerous normalizing of risk? Come for a raw discussion about the kind of sex, intimacy, fantasies and pleasure we crave, and how we can get there.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Center on Halsted - 6:00 p.m.

A special LifeLube gay men's health forum in conjunction with the 2009 National LGBTI Health Summit.

Click LifeLube (the Mothership) for more info and to RSVP for this FREE event.

RSVP for LifeLube Podcast Forum Risky Business Now Up!

Please join LifeLube, Project CRYSP, and Feast of Fun for this special gay men’s health forum in conjunction with the 2009 National LGBTI Health Summit:

Risky Business?
Bareback Porn and the Reclaiming of Pleasure

How does porn – and bareback porn – affect our sexual desires and practices?

Are videos depicting edgy sex a HOT but safe way to get off for viewers or does condomless porn signal a dangerous normalizing of risk?

Come for a raw discussion about the kind of sex, intimacy, fantasies and pleasure we crave, and how we can get there.

RSVP Here!

Moderated by Fausto Fernos and Marc Felion of the Feast of Fun Podcast

Featured panelists include writer and gay men’s health activist Tony Valenzuela, Dr. Braden Berkey of the Center on Halsted, and Mufasa Ali, founder of ONYX, a leathermen’s group for men of color.

Monday, August 17, 2009
Center on Halsted
3656 North Halsted
Hoover Leppen Theatre

Doors open 6:00 p.m. for light nibbles and schmoozing
Program begins 7:00 p.m.

Space is limited for this free event.
Please click to RSVP. You must RSVP, thanks!

IML MAKES HISTORY

Today the International Mr. Leather (IML) group out of Chicago made history by stopping the sale of bareback porn at their event.

IML has been around for over 30 years starting out as a little gimmick by bar owner Chuck Renslow as a way to get more people into his bar. It blossomed into a successful annual event which has become (so I've heard over the years) one of the biggest conventions in the city of Chicago.

Anyway, the interesting part of this is that the leather community was very Safer Sex oriented at the start of the AIDS epidemic (and I don't call that 'language of fear', I know that's what we called it then because I was around .. just coming out but I was around) but by the late 90s because of The Cocktail and hardon-inducing drugs (Viagra!) not to mention the popularization and virtual decriminalization (at least from a social point of view) of crystal meth (which allows guys to fuck all night long), Safer Sex went out the window and barebacking became the new fetish.

Check out Will Clark World for the rest and stay tuned for LifeLube's upcoming August podcast forum Risky Business, discussing bareback porn and intimacy in the gay community.

IML says NO to Bareback Merch

click to enlarge

London event to discuss if bareback pornography hinders HIV prevention

"25 years after the battle against HIV began there is mounting evidence that gay men are ignoring the safer sex message," the Southbank said in a press release.

"Bareback porn, depicting unsafe sex, has come out from under the counter and into the gay mainstream.

"What message is this sending out? And what of the models who make this form of gay adult entertainment?"

Read the whole item on pinknews.

Notes on Bareback Porn

by Charles Stephens

I have seen hundreds of action movies across my lifespan, and wouldn't you know, I've never had the urge to jump off a building, blow up a car, or crane kick an evil agent?

Or for that matter, I've never had the urge, that I can recall, to drive a car off the side of the Grand Canyon holding hands with my best friend to the tragic but bittersweet end. At least not yet. Nor do most people, it would appear, since there haven't been outbreaks of people performing stunts they've seen in action movies or chick-flicks. And yet one of the critiques I often hear about bareback porn, from my colleagues in the world of HIV prevention, is the fear that it will make people think it's ok, God forbid, to engage in that behavior.


Pornographic movies, even of the bareback genre, do not define sexual cultures and behaviors, they represent them. Pornography does not create sexuality, no more than the cinema creates reality, it merely projects it. The trend of barebacking, and the fetishization of semen, started long before the bareback porn genre, and would lead me to believe that it's not that porn creates the behavior, but the behaviors, and subcultures that drive the porn. I would not go as far as the pornographer Paul Morris to suggest that bareback porn is a kind of ethnography, however, there are clearly some anthropological implications documented in bareback porn. For example, it's impossible to think critically about representations of gay men's sexuality in our time, without a serious consideration of bareback porn.

Most importantly, what bareback porn tells us, and it's increasing popularity, is the desire for us to see diverse representations of our sexuality. That might look like the muscled and Tom of Finlandesque aesthetic of Titan Media, who is a decidedly pro-condom company, the brown and twinky boys of Flava Works, or the cum pigs of Treasure Island. In the real world our sexuality isn't monolithic. We are a kind of democracy of sexual behaviors ranging from vanilla to scat. Bareback porn, and it's evolution should not come as a surprise, other than to indicate the absolute resilience of gay men to be self-determining in our sexual practices. In other words, after over 20 years of being told that our semen is toxic, there are still those of us that manage to eroticize it, aestheticize it, and subsequently represent it. And most importantly, perhaps watching bareback porn, and the ability to channel one’s fantasy voyeuristically, might prevent some gay men from actually doing it.

Am I suggesting that pornographers specializing in bareback porn have no responsibility to their consumers? No. I actually resent the simplistic libertarianism, and cynical market worship of some porn producers. However, we have yet to develop a substantial model that can be replicated of private/public partnerships with pornographers. A model of mutual responsibility that respects both the need of HIV Preventionistas to provide HIV prevention messages, and the desire of the pornographers to do and create their art. Like Camille Paglia, I believe that anything that can be imagined, must be represented, and we have to create space for that. And yet, we have to be committed to co-creating communities where HIV prevention messages can co-exist with semen fetishists and raunch enthusiasts. Having been the victims of sexual repression we must remember the lesson of George Orwell's Animal Farm, and not engage in the same oppression and intolerance that has been done to us.

Charles Stephens is an Atlanta-based writer and organizer. You can check out his own blog here. and he can be reached at charlesfstephens@gmail.com.

Porn, RFD, & Me

i'm all about liberty, choice, and exuberant sex. i have nothing but support for those who make an informed choice to have what my activist friend reminds me is natural sex. still, i feel a negative visceral response to the promotion of so-called bareback media.

there's a human impact I've encountered first-hand -men and boys who feel their willingness is a commodity to be traded against their perceived shortcomings: age, ability, cock size, weight, femininity, hiv status.

i'm repelled when terms like bareback, pre-condom, and raw are used to brand, commodify, and attach a premium to risk.

where the vulnerable or clueless pursue fantasies fueled by glamorization of risk with little or no brotherly support, unhappy results range from name -calling to seroconversions, addiction, and worse.

by middle

[click to enlarge]

the piece appears in the current autumn issue (#135) of rfd magazine,
second only to the advocate as the nation’s longest-running queer publication.

Bareback porn and masturbation

via My Bareback Blog

Bareback porn can be a safer way for those watching to indulge in their sexual fantasies, because watching bareback porn usually goes hand in hand with masturbation and not actually having unprotected anal sex. For a number of men, watching bareback porn is as close to bareback sex as they get. Some men enjoy the concept of barebacking, but are concerned about the health risks associated with not using a condom, including HIV and other Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI’s), also known as Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD’s).

Read the rest.