[To celebrate achieving 50,000 photos on my Flickr stream since 2006, I'm posting my top 20 favorite photographic themes. Check out Top 20 Flickr Photo Themes and 50,000 Photos for more.]
Number 18 on my list of my favorite types of Flickr photos are my pictures of gay porn stars.
Perhaps I should note that these are photos I personally took of porn stars in real life, not pilfered from the Internet.
The gay community's evolution as a minority group is somewhat different than minorities defined by ethnicity, ancestry, or religion. While other minorities had their families for support growing up in a hostile culture, we grow up alone and confused. When the LGBT community first started to recognize sexual orientation as an innate characteristic rather than simply an optional behavior, homosexuality was still classified as a mental disorder and an illegal act, and those who acted on their feelings were forced either to do so covertly or to flee their families and set up new lives elsewhere.
Outsiders defined us largely by our sexual behavior. Because we were cast off -- sexual outlaws, as John Rechy has argued -- we were free to define our relationships and sexual mores as we wished.
The gay community has embraced gay porn stars as celebrities in a way that the mainstream population has never embraced straight porn stars and probably never will. It's my belief that we did so, and will continue to do so, for two reasons. First and foremost, I believe the gay community as a whole is somewhat less judgmental about sexuality, whether it's people whose turn-ons are different than our own or people who make a living in the sex industry. We are willing to accept porn stars as human beings, friends, and even bone fide celebrities, rather than part of an industry to be shunned.
Second, historically -- especially before World War II and leading up through the end of the Vietnam War -- we did not have national celebrities of our own. Our celebrities tended to be more local figures, like drag performers and, later, political activists. On a national level, we revered straight allies like Judy Garland but did not have gay heroes. Those gay figures of international reputation who were outed typically met tragic fates, like Oscar Wilde and Alan Turing. But the musicians and actors who were gay led closeted lives, at least outside of Hollywood, and it wasn't until after they died that the private lives of people like Rock Hudson and Liberace would be made public. Until we reached a generation where people like k.d. lang, Elton John, Melissa Etheridge, Neal Patrick Harris, and John Barrowman could come out without losing their careers, we had few celebrities of national stature. As a result, we embraced those of national recognition within our own community: gay porn stars.
Which is an overly long preface to bring us to the next topic of my favorite Flickr photos: gay porn stars.
In San Francisco, especially in gay neighborhoods, you can't throw a stone without hitting someone involved in the porn industry. We encounter gay porn performers all the time at the gym, in clubs, at charity fundraisers, and more. Here are some of our favorites we've worked with in different capacities.
Brent Corrigan
We have worked with Brent Corrigan on two different fundraisers, both for Community United Against Violence. In August 2006, Brent -- who was then only 19 years old -- was the emcee of our Midsummer Night's Dream fundraiser. Five performers, some in drag and some as boys, competed to be crowned the next king or queen of the fairies. Although their performances helped capture the audiences' attention, the voting was done through their sale of raffle tickets, and in the end our friend Katya Smirnoff-Skyy came in first place. The event remains the second most lucrative charity fundraiser we've held at the Big Gay Frat House.
Two years later, Brent returned to San Francisco for Another Gay Fundraiser, an event we threw together at the LookOut that was tied into the world premiere of the mainstream film Another Gay Sequel, in which he appears as a merman. This event raised several thousand dollars for CUAV. Not bad for a bar event!
Below are a few more photos of Brent at these two fundraisers. And you can find more photos of Brent Corrigan on Flickr.
Danny Roddick and Brotherhood
In April of 2007, we rented out our home to Colt Studios so that they could film Brotherhood, a fraternity-themed porn film through their Buckshot subdivision. It was an interesting perspective on a major adult film shoot, with complex lighting, camera work, and more dialog than I've ever heard of in a porn movie. (Writer/director Jerry Douglas later won a GayVN, the equivalent of a gay porn Oscar, for Best Writing.)
The film starred Danny Roddick along with Dean Phoenix, Jan Fisher, Tory Mason, Trey Castille, Jorden Michaels, Sebastian Rivers, Kurt Wild, Justin Berkshire, Kevin Armstrong, and Dallas Reeves. The full cast photo, along with us, is at the top of the page. Oh, and I had a brief cameo in the opening credits playing (what else?) a photographer.
So we spent the week with boys running around our house in their underwear, jockstraps, or completely naked. The process of filming is arduous; the seven-person orgy scene in our living room took something like nine hours to shoot.
The film was scheduled for a September release (back to school?), and the producers planned for a release party/charity fundraiser in our home which was to be hosted by Danny Roddick, who was going to auction the underwear off his body as part of the fundraiser. Sadly, Danny tragically died the week before the fundraiser and we cancelled the event.
Here are more behind-the-scenes shots on the set of Brotherhood. Check out Flickr for more.
Colby Taylor and Strip Twister
At the filming of Brotherhood in our home, the second camera operator was someone who also had a lot of experience in front of the camera: porn star Colby Taylor. We became friends on and off the set. At the after party, he suddenly rushed into the bathroom to scrub off extra lube. Of course we took a photo; a porn star who cleans up after himself is the hottest star of all!
Months later, I ran into him while he was playing strip twister at the Deco Lounge. Yes, he got completely naked, as did the other players. He ran up to say hi after he finished the game. Then, turning, he saw my friend and ran up to give him a hug too. My friend didn't even notice, until he saw the photos later, that Colby was completely naked when he was hugging him.
He gave us a ride home that night, telling us terrible jokes that are completely inappropriate for polite company. Naturally, they are among the very few jokes in my life that I can remember.
Here are a few more of Colby at the filming of Brotherhood, strip twister at Deco, and elsewhere. You can find more photos of Colby Taylor on Flickr as well.
Pete Ross and Manwash
Several years ago, I attended a fundraiser at the Powerhouse called Manwash. The idea was that guests would buy raffle tickets. A porn star would then be "dirtied up" with body paint and the grand prize winner of the raffle would get to wash the pornstar clean. It was intended to be a monthly benefit for the Stop AIDS Project.
The first night, the porn star was Pete Ross. And I won.
I've written about that fundraiser with Pete Ross in a previous blog post. It wasn't my first time seeing him -- once, not long before, he was part of a cavalcade of performers at the Bad Boys by the Bay fundraiser for Magnet, and another time at one of Sister Roma's Looking Good, Feeling Fab fundraisers.
The following month, I won again. This time it was a different boy, someone I don't believe was even in porn, that I got to clean up.
Here are a few more of Pete. You can find more of Pete Ross on Flickr.
Roman Heart, Benjamin Bradley, PlanetOut, and RSVP Cruises
In my post for Number 20 on my list, I mentioned twice having the opportunity to go on RSVP Cruises, as PlanetOut, where I worked, then owned RSVP. PlanetOut also then owned Liberty Publications, the publishers of magazines like The Advocate and Out Magazine. Liberty also had a porn division that included Freshman Magazine, among others. And so as part of cross-company promotional efforts, RSVP brought on porn stars onto their cruises.
My first cruise included Roman Heart. It wasn't the first time I met him; that was at another Gay.com party. You know you work for a gay company when porn stars are featured guests of your events (and drag queens emcee your company Christmas party). Anyway, I was a bit smitten with Roman before he became too muscley for my tastes, so of course I got a photo with him.
My second cruise included Roman's ex, Benjamin Bradley, as a guest. (They were ex-boyfriends at the time, but they have subsequently gotten back together.) Yes, I got a photo with Ben, too. Once, years later, I met the two together. I have a photo of that encounter, too.
Other friends: Trystian Sweet, Luke Cassidy, and more...
Many of the porn stars I've become friends without knowing they were in porn, at least not initially. Quite a lot of them I met performing, but on stage rather than behind the camera. More specifically, they were dancing on a go-go stage.
Trystian Sweet, for example, always loved it when I would photograph him while he danced, and he would pause while dancing to make sure I got a good shot. He came to my 40th birthday party, bouncing up to me while I was chatting with my mother, bringing an enormous birthday card that was almost three feet tall. Just days before, Colt Studios had shot publicity stills of him naked in our living room. (The actual movie was filmed elsewhere, as the director was allergic to our cats.)
I didn't know Luke Cassidy did porn for about a year after I met him go-go dancing at the LookOut and other clubs. It took me many more months to actually be able to remember his porn name. We've subsequently become good friends. I also have many photos of Luke's good friend, Kai Ford, who has subsequently moved to Europe.
Tristian Phoenix, another boy I met go-go dancing, volunteered to dance at our Frat House for the Holidays fundraiser. So did another friend whose porn name has changed so many times that I can't remember any of them. Wolf Hudson danced at one of our Girl Drink Drunk fundraisers and subsequently became a friend. I photographed Christian Owen go-go dancing long before I knew he did porn. I later hired him to dance at the Trannyshack finale. I've long harbored a little crush on T.J. Hawke, though most of my photos of him aren't properly tagged. And I dare say there are many other go-go boys I've photographed who have a whole career in front of the cameras that I'm not aware of.
Here are a handful of other porn performers whose photos I've taken over the years:
Of course, I have many more photos of gay porn performers on Flickr.
, had a credited cameo in 
, will star in the upcoming film 
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