elmtelligence

AN OPEN LETTER REGARDING TESTING AND CONDOM USAGE

I have said all along what my opinion on bareback porn is and if there was some sort of way to protect the model I would not have a issue with it. Yet the industry thinks that just because they advocate the use of a condom that they are not promoting unsafe sex paractices. The real truth is they are, don’t be fooled a condom will protect you to a degree but the knowledge of knowing your viral status will protect you and your partner. So get tested and know you are truly safe. this open letter was Posted and then removed. I wonder why, could it be that it slaps the gay porn industry in they’re collective mouth with the truth of the hypocrisy that they use?

Posted on 17. Sep, 2009 by Kyle Majors in Blogroll, Gay Porn Updates

As you may know, California is the porn production capital of the world. Recently, Cal OSHA and the California Legislature have begun to take a serious look at porn producers’ practices regarding STD testing and mandatory condom usage.
Yesterday a major gay porn blog posted an article claiming that the gay adult industry is rallying to “wage war” to stop the California government from requiring STD testing on porn sets. The article suggested that the industry is united on this, and that such a requirement would cripple bareback production and drive everyone’s production costs through the roof. I replied to the article suggesting that it was one-sided, pointing out that CockyBoys.com requires AIM testing AND condom usage, and suggesting that anything less is unacceptable.

The blog pulled the original article, stating that a revised article is forthcoming. The blog also removed my commentary. The gay adult industry is absolutely not united in opposition to AIM testing and condom usage. Having been silent in the public debate, and having had my post removed yesterday, I decided to go on the record in my own blog and other blogs who find the topic of interest.

CockyBoys has been AIM testing almost since we started AND requiring condom usage. We pay for the AIM tests, not the models. And, we are not alone. Many web-based studios have required testing and condom usage for a long time. Bait Bus, Randyblue, NextDoorMale and Suite 703 require AIM testing. Sean Cody and Collegedudes247 require HIV testing.
Testing is NOT prohibitively expensive, except maybe for studios that pay models crap to begin with. It’s especially a meaningless cost if you are shooting the model in more than one scene and amortize the cost across those scenes. The AIM folks will work with you to find local testing centers near the models so out-of-state models don’t have to come to California to be tested. The problem is that there is a general sense that profits come before models. My God we have an obligation to models – to protect them – not expose them to unnecessary risks. If a studio really can’t afford testing, they probably shouldn’t be in the business.

Further, many “condom only” studios like to pretend that they have no responsibility because condoms are used. A lot of condom studios give models a false sense of security spreading myths about the level of safety on their sets. Condoms break and have a statistical percentage of failure. One studio boasts that it not only uses condoms, but also inspects models before a shoot for any visible signs of STDs. What a crock of bull – as if the naked eye can detect STDs.
There is also the issue of “facials” where one model cums in another’s mouth. Although less risky than bareback sex, oral cum shots pose certain risks. A number of studios who use condoms, but don’t test, then turn around and shoot oral cum shots. They usually give the model some line about how saliva is acidic and oral sex is safe. That’s simply not true. If the ejaculating model is infected with an STD, the receiving model’s mouth is potentially vulnerable. This is especially true if the ejaculating model has a cut on his penis, has blood in his semen, or has a high viral count, or the receiving model has a cut in his mouth, a bleeding or receding gum line, recently brushed his teeth, or is “deepthroating.” Even with testing oral cum shots raise certain moral questions for me, but without testing they are clearly irresponsible and unsafe.

I am sick and tired of the DVD and bareback guys whining over this issue. This is a situation where the industry should have banded together and self-regulated. There might have been some means of establishing “truly informed consent” that could co-exist with testing. That didn’t happen. Now the only state in the Union where producing porn is clearly legal is considering government regulation – it’s policing an area where the industry failed to police itself. CockyBoys approached a couple of the pro-condom DVD studios a year or so ago about creating an industry trade association and we were privately told to “not rock the boat” over bareback content. Now the government is stepping in, and frankly, it’s about time.
Condoms are a “must.” Bareback has no place at all in legalized porn production in my opinion. In an insightful piece written for TheSword.com entitled, “Pornstars to Producers: Condoms Not Enough,” the author highlights models’ genuine concerns over the risks and the general lack of communication by studios regarding potential STD exposures. The article states that 30% of gay adult models are HIV positive. I suspect that number may be higher viewed on a studio-by-studio basis. In that light, bareback studios are downright irresponsible. There is NO REASON to permit bareback production. It presents an unacceptable degree of risk rising to a level of reckless endangerment in my view.

I recently read a quote from a bareback producer stating two models could cost three hundred dollars or more to get tested. The producer said most models don’t have the money so they’re not going to pay for it. Are you kidding me? The producer should pay for it. $150 per model is what we are talking about? So let’s say “fuck it,” not pay the $150, have them shoot bareback and roll the dice? Interestingly enough if you google the same producer you find claims from a model that the producer pressured the model to do bareback work (even though the producer also shoots condom scenes).

With power comes responsibility. Models do porn principally because they need the money. I can pull out my check book, and if the number is big enough I can make just about anyone do just about anything. Could I give our models a bunch of bullshit about how testing minimizes the risks, write them a check, and get them to do bareback? Yes, I probably could for many. But they wouldn’t be doing it because they wanted to, or because they really feel comfortable, they would be doing it because they need the money.

Here’s where the “free will” people chime in. It’s suddenly all about models’ rights and the models’ ability to make their own decisions. This is probably the only time you will hear studios advocate models’ rights, so listen up. The idea is that models are at least 18 years of age, and are informed adults. They have the right to make their own decisions regarding their health. They have the right to control their own bodies. This is America damn it – who is the government to regulate what we can do with our bodies? Well this argument is so silly it only merits addressing because so many people toss it about. The fact is that the government regulates what we can do with our bodies all the time, principally in an effort to stop us from doing something stupid in the name of money. Selling blood and semen is legal in most states. Selling kidneys isn’t. Prostitution is legal in Nevada on a county by county basis. Most states think prostitution is a bad idea. There are tons of examples where the government protects us from doing something potentially dangerous for money. If you can’t sell a kidney or a lung for money, it seems to me you shouldn’t be able to engage in unsafe sex for money either. The model is not only endangering his health, but the model in question almost certainly is without health insurance. When he gets sick he’ll probably be a burden on the state as well.

There are at least two primary reasons to oppose bareback porn: the health risks, and the message it sends. I’ve already discussed the obvious health risks to models. The “message” point is more subtle. Bareback porn arguably sends a message that bareback sex is “ok” or “safe.” The idea is that bareback porn encourages others to engage in unsafe sex. This argument not only indicts bareback producers, but also distributors of bareback content and “pre-condom” content. That’s right; if you find the “social message” argument compelling, you have to condemn the “pre-condom” companies too. It’s not about when the content was produced, it’s about the social message it sends. Personally I’m less moved by this argument, as model safety is my primary motivating factor. However, the argument is not without merit.

Finally there’s the argument that if California adopts regulations on porn producers, production companies will move to another state and California will lose hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue. Producers informed on the law governing adult entertainment production know that California has more favorable laws than any other state. However, if California’s actions pose a real risk of state flight by producers, then it’s an argument for regulation at the federal level. As opposed to allowing producers to “state shop” for states that don’t regulate, perhaps the federal government should adopt national regulations. Instead of devoting so much energy to 2257, maybe the feds should take a close look at bareback porn and the benefits of condoms and testing.

The bottom line is this. Neither condoms nor testing is enough. Condoms break, and HIV exposure takes 9 to 11 days to show up even in AIM HIV tests. Testing combined with latex is the only morally acceptable solution. We are asking guys to have sex on camera for money. The least we can do is foot the bill (less than the cost of a decent dinner) to test. As for condom usage, well if you don’t see the health benefits of that by this point….nothing I say in closing will convince you. This is one area where the models have to come before profits. If it takes the government stepping in to force the matter, then so be it.
Thanks for listening. Be well.
Kyle Majors

Thank you Kyle for taking a stand and for showing just how chicken shit this industry really is.
thank you Disd for getting the letter
This is Elmysterio and I’m out

Hello my dear readers, now as you all may well know I have made my opinion known on the whole bareback issue, but hot is hot and we will just leave it at that. I can just hope that they are taking the proper precautions with the models. Eastern Europe is a hotbed for bareback porn and there are a few American companies who are trying to Cash in on that market as well. We have so few American Companies that are producing it and most of them are fighting scandal, Cobra Video, Boybatter and Helix studios to name a few. The Bigger companies are all against it and there is good reason for it and I must say I am in agreement with them. The risks are in my opinion just to high. But it seems that this is where the money is and in an industry that is still reeling from murders and other scandals. I thought that I would write about something else for a change. I’ve got someone for you to check out. His name is Dominik Trojan and he is a hottie. Do you like Brent Everett and Zack Randall? Well here is a combination of them both, he is hot and sexy and hung as well as versatile. He burst out on the scene in 2006 and at present he is working for Hammer Entertainment and can be seen in several titles.
I have checked him out and I can tell you for a fact that he is Hot. He’s is 6 feet tall with dark hair and blue green eyes and sexy full lips a cute little ass and he is packing a nice tool as well. He has been classified as a twink but he is in my opinion a little to tall for that category but we will let that slide. As you know I have been a little quiet on my blog lately as I have been doing allot of “research”. And through that research I have discovered Dominik. I have had to do allot of video watching and he was a stand out in my opinion.
I must say his scene in Bareback Beginners 16 was stellar and he was paired with the same model from Dripping Wet.
They have a natural chemistry together and he takes Mark Zebro’s 8 inch cock like there’s no tomorrow. There is a yahoo group dedicated to him with picture galleries and a brief bio and a list of his videos. So if you want to check him out you might want to go there. You do have to be a member but it is free.
I have watched at least 4 of his videos and I can say this I was not disappointed. So check him out and tell me what you think.

This is Elmysterio and I’m out.

Well with the rumors and innuendo being thrown about in the gay porn industry about HIV infected performers I thought I would bring this topic up for you to talk about. We have had some recent claims by a few people who have claimed that they became infected after encounters with Ashton Ryan. Ashton has denied these rumors and said he would submit to testing when Jason Curious volunteered to pay for it. But he never showed up for the test. We now know for a fact that Ashton Ryan is HIV positve and he has infected at least 3 other people, and he is still lying about his HIV status. He sent out a letter to all the men he had sex with telling them all about his status and to get tested. But he was on Jason’s Ksex radio show and he denied he was HIV positive. And we have Tyler Mason who is
on record saying that Ashton is not positive. Did Ashton lie to Tyler or was Tyler lying for Ashton. Tyler is also reported to be the one who started the whole “Cleaner” rumor about Sean Lockhart and Grant Roy. Update: 07/15/2008 It has been reported to me that Tyler has been cleared of that accusation. My apologies to Tyler for any harm that rumor caused I guess their was bad blood between he and Sean. Why would Tyler accuse them of wanting to have someone killed? Tyler was said to have made that statement but we now know who started that rumor. CC why would you lie about your friend? Who are we to believe when it comes to such stories? Then we have the innuendo about Carter Longway or is it Jarrod Steele
who was recently released from his contract with Falcon and he is now working with the notorious Hot Desert Knights in their latest Dungeon Gang Bang. He has also performed bare back with Lycon films as well. Now I am not saying that he’s positive but with the type of work he is currently doing it would lead one to believe so. So where do I stand on the bareback issue? Well if the producers used reliable testing methods and the performers used condoms off the set I would have no issue with it. But there has to be a remarkable level of trust on all the parties involved and that is something that I just don’t see happening. So I would be against it for ethical reasons. I have watched bareback porn and I can understand the lure of it, that was all there was when I first started watching gay porn. I just find it hard to watch someone risk their health doing it now. The decision by a performer to do bareback porn is personal and I am not going to claim that they should not do it. We now have a better idea of how the virus is spread and we know allot more know than we did 25 years ago. I just hope the models are aware of the risks involved and take precautions in their personal lives. HIV is more treatable now but that still does not make it an acceptable risk in my book. I can tell you from what I have witnessed that its no picnic.
There have also been rumors about Falcon Studios who have been major players in the porn business for the better part of 30 years. It seems that they are in a bit of a crisis, performers and directors are leaving in droves. What is the meaning behind all of this. I have seen there last few releases and they have good stuff out there but allot of their recent stuff is pretty hit and miss. I think they are basing there business on the same old formula and the whole gay for pay thing is pretty much played out. Maybe they just need to regroup and find a new direction before the bird becomes extinct.

The Bryan Kocis murder investigation seems to be at a stand still and the future of Cobra Video is still up in the air. Through a comment on Brent corigan online we have found out that no other than Arron Phelps, a Cobra model and confidant to Bryan kocis is helping to run the studio with Bryan’s sister. I guess Mr. Phelps is trying his best to get the company together. But I have not seen any new progress on the site. And last but not least the boys at Boybatter productions seem to be pushing their new venture Harlow Cuadra online. They have also been spouting off about a secret big new production. It seems they are keeping a bit of a lower profile as of late and not flooding the blogs with their propaganda. I guess they are busy with their New super secret huge production being filmed at a super secret mysterious location .
I hear it called Super Stud Twink Wonders of the New Millenium. Catchy title but allot to live up to don’t you think.

Well that’s the latest form the rumor mill.

If you have any dirt or new dish you can spill it here.

This is Elmysterio and I’m out.

I was just checking out the other Blogs today and came across this one on Jason Curious’s blog and it was getting a little heated. I was going to post a comment there but it turned in to this long dissertation so I thought that I would just make it a post on my Blog. The subject was about the sudden upswing in bareback porn and its effect on the industry and the young gay men of today.With companies Like Hot Desert Knights, Eurocreme, Cobra Video and Treasure Island Media to name a few producing this product and their sales climbing because of it, will this be the new trend in gay porn?. There are a few things I Have to say to start this off when I first started looking at Gay Porn it was all bareback. The whole Aids crisis had not yet begun. The boys were young and hot and the sex was wild and uninhibited. But that started to change in the early 80’s when a few models started to get sick. Then more were getting sick and dying and I’m talking fast. Some people got sick and were dead in a few months. No one knew what it was but it was bad whatever it was. The gay community went into a literal panic. People were scared to touch each other or even drink from the same glass. There was a period that if you did not see someone for a couple of weeks you assumed they were dead. I’m not being over dramatic here I am just stating the truth as to what I experienced. So I made a conscience decision to learn as much about what was going on as possible. During this period I watched hundreds of young men die from this dreaded disease. It was hard and it was tragic. One week in 1988 I went to 10 different memorial services. And one was for 4 guys who were all friends who died in the same week. So I think I have a really good idea of the affects and the effects of AIDS. I knew a few Gay porn stars Jon King, Lance Chisolm, Ron Pearson and Mike Henson and they are all gone now and the all died from aids or was HIV Positive when they died. And they all preformed in bareback Porn the common denominator here. And now we are watching all these companies who are shooting bareback porn again.

The big question you should ask is what precautions are they taking to protect their models? Are they taking any at all? Is the draw to perform in bareback porn the lure of the money? And now we are having a few of the current gay porn performers coming out and saying that they have contracted the virus. This is a serious problem and one that should not be taken lightly. I am not saying that these models contracted the virus on a movie set because they do have sex outside of the videos that they film but it is going to directly impact the porn industry again just like it did 20 years ago. This is a really good debate and it is something we all should rethink. I have been through the gay pandemic and came out the other end still negative. But during the late 80’s and the early 90’s I lost a great number of close friends and acquaintances to AIDS.
It was Hard at the time and It still is today as well. The recent amount of Bareback companies popping up has me a little worried to say the least. I mean Jason is correct when he says that the education system is lacking on the subject. He is also right when he says it is a personal choice. So the mission of the older generation of gay men is to help get the message across to the younger generation and to help them make an educated choice. There is one problem with that statement though and it is the previous generation: mine that took the biggest hit from AIDS and HIV and of the many hundreds of thousands of men and woman who have succumbed to the disease are not here to tell there stories.
That leaves a few of us to impart our knowledge of the effects of AIDS and HIV. I am all for personal choice and freedoms but you have to be educated on your choices. I will not say that I have never had unprotected sex because that would be a lie. But I am saying that when I did it was an educated choice. I read about how the virus is transmitted and I was there at the beginning of it.. I choose to not get fucked by just anyone but only by people who I had some faith and trust in and was in a relationship with. And if I did choose to have sex with someone who I was not to sure of a condom was used. There is still risk in having anal sex with a condom. The use of a condom is at best is only 65% safer than receptive anal sex without one. So you see there is still a 35% risk involved anyway. There is also a risk of contracting the virus through oral sex. It is much smaller but if you have any cuts in your mouth and you suck some one off there is a greater risk. The virus hides in body fluids semen, vaginal fluids, and the blood stream. It has been known to be present in saliva. If you are healthy the virus is harder to contract. But if you use drugs and or alcohol they lower you immune systems ability to fight off the virus and they lower your inhibitions to make a conscious decision about who with, how and where you have sex. They also affect whether you use appropriate protection. In truth the only way to remain sure that you will not contract the virus is to remain abstinent. But that is not a viable solution for most people. So you take the risk and go out and have sex anyway. Life is filled with a lot of choices and tough decisions and to use a condom is really not a hard one to make if you want to live a healthy long life. HIV is no longer the death sentence it once was but it is a life altering one nonetheless. I have some friends who have been positive for 20 plus years and are still healthy but they know that it could change at any moment. Some have had serious setbacks and were literally swirling around the drain so to speak and the meds kicked in. So you can make an educated choice to not use a condom but you must be well aware of the possible ramifications of your decision. This is where the education system has failed us. They just say unprotected sex = death, not that you can live with HIV. What they should show the young people of today is how it will affect them and what is required to try to stay healthy once you have contracted the virus. This subject is not cut and dry by any stretch of the imagination but it is something we must deal with in an informed manner. Sorry this was so long but it’s a really important subject. As for the porn industry they should not be looked upon for their stand for or against bare backing because to them it is really all about your dollars. Bare backing in gay porn was the norm until a few studios took a stand against it and they did this because the models were all dying. As I mentioned before I knew quite a few of the models from the late 80’ early 90’s and most of them are dead now. It is really a sad commentary to see that we have come full circle with a new generation of young men who really have no older generation to look up to and to help guide them through the tough period called youth. I was one of the lucky ones to survive the pandemic and I will try to impart my knowledge on the next generation. I was also lucky enough to have the experience of learning the ropes on how to deal in the New World of being gay from the experienced men who came before me. And a New World it was, filled with the excitement of new encounters with new men and sex. The gay community was a community then and it still is but society has changed in such a way that we are now not confined to the gay ghettos. Gay people live their lives out and proud anywhere they want to now. There are still the risks of hate crimes but we are not isolated as we once were. This is where we have the big problem. We are not as centralized and we don’t have the programs that we once had because of the de-funding by the government of such projects. The current political atmosphere is fighting world terror and the rest of the country is under siege by the rightwing conservatives who are spouting phrases from the bible of our damnation and that AIDS is Gods will. We need to regroup as a community and start to provide more out reach programs for at risk gay youth. These kids are coming out much earlier and they are being raised by parents who may still love their gay child but are ill equipped to deal with the realities of the fact that there child is gay. I have many straight friends who have sons and daughters who are now at the age where they are becoming sexually active and the parents are freaked out. They want to believe that their children will be like they were and not have sex until they are much older say late teens early twenties but the facts are their kids are having sex as early as 12 in some cases and the parents are clueless. I have been available to these kids as a kind of a mentor, because most of their parents just can’t handle the facts that their baby’s grow up. The parents know what’s going on because the kids know if something serious comes up and they are scared to tell there parents they can tell me and we can all talk about it together with their parents. I have one friend who has a son who is 16 and we were in the garage working on putting in some shelving. I said to her “Did Costco have a sale Kleenex” and she said that her son has allergies and goes through a box a week. I looked at her and said, “since when does josh have allergies?” and her response was “since he turned 13″. Needles to say I lost it and her response was “what’s so funny?” I looked at her and said “you really don’t have a clue do you?” and she was “about what?” I said “Josh doesn’t have allergies and it’s not his nose that’s running.” She was like “well what is it then?” and I gave her a look of mock disgust and she finally got it. Then she said “eww I just cleaned his room and there were Kleenex everywhere”. We had a good laugh and when Josh came home I told him about it and we both had a good laugh too. This is just an example of how naïve parents are about the sex lives of their children. So we really need to give the young gay community some guidance and help in navigating the waters of there new found sexuality. Brent Corrigan had a post on his Blog in the ask Brent section where he tells how he got involved in the whole bareback scene in porn and how he feels about it now. So I hope this does not sound to preachy but it is important to love yourself enough to care about yourself and make the right decisions to protect your health.

This is Elmysterio and I’m out